Are Western governments running out of legitimacy? From London to Berlin and Paris to Washington, trust in political institutions is collapsing. In his debut episode, Ralph Schoellhammer dives into the growing trust issues and the crisis of political legitimacy shaking Western governments.
Across Europe and the West, a deep governance crisis has emerged — marked by collapsing political trust, government transparency failures, and vanishing government accountability. As democracy in crisis spreads, citizens question the social contract and demand real citizen engagement.
From political corruption to media influence, and from government failure to political instability, this episode explores how public trust has eroded, how political discourse has fractured, and why trust in government may be gone for good.
Is this a failure of leadership — or the end of the postwar order itself? Topics in this episode:
Political legitimacy and the roots of distrust
How government transparency and accountability collapse
The role of media influence in shaping political discourse
What happens when public trust disappears
Can the social contract be rebuilt?
