# Must Politics Be War?

**URL:** <https://www.libertarianism.org/podcasts/free-thoughts/must-politics-be-war>

**By** Kevin Vallier, Aaron Ross Powell, Trevor Burrus

**Published:** April 3, 2020

---

Kevin Vallier joins the show today to discuss how politics itself is nothing more than a power struggle between groups with irreconcilable aims.

Americans are far less likely to trust their institutions, and each other, today compared to decades past. This collapse in social and political trust arguably fuels our increasingly ferocious ideological conflicts and hardened partisanship.

What’s the basis for people to trust each other? How do you measure social trust? What is reflective equilibrium?

## Further Reading:

[Must Politics Be War?: Restoring Our Trust in the Open Society](https://global.oup.com/academic/product/must-politics-be-war-9780190632830?cc=us&lang=en), written by Kevin Vallier

[Liberal Politics and Public Faith: Beyond Separation](https://www.kevinvallier.com/books/liberal-politics-and-public-faith/), written by Kevin Vallier

[Political Utopias: Contemporary Debates](https://www.kevinvallier.com/books/political-utopias/), edited by Michael Weber and Kevin Vallier

## Related Content:

[Arguments for Liberty: Rawlsianism](https://www.libertarianism.org/podcasts/free-thoughts/arguments-for-liberty-rawlsianism), Free Thoughts Podcast

[A Rawlsian Case for Libertarianism](https://www.libertarianism.org/essays/rawlsian-case-libertarianism), written by Kevin Vallier

[Subjective Reasons and Political Justification](https://www.libertarianism.org/blog/subjective-reasons-political-justification), written by Julian Sanchez