Trust as a Moral-Institutional Resource for Strengthening Social Relations in New Uzbekistan
Ilkhom Khayitmurodov 
Abstract. This article examines trust as a moral-institutional resource in the transformation of social relations in New Uzbekistan. Instead of treating trust as passive approval or as an attitude that public institutions can directly demand, the study conceptualizes it as a reasoned expectation produced when moral commitments, everyday experience, and institutional performance converge. The research uses conceptual reconstruction, normative-legal analysis, institutional analysis, and mechanism mapping. Its source base combines classical and contemporary theories of trust with Uzbekistan’s constitutional and strategic framework and international governance standards. The study proposes a six-dimensional trustworthiness model consisting of legal reliability, procedural fairness, transparency, responsiveness, competence, and meaningful participation. It also identifies a recurring trust cycle linking normative guarantees, everyday institutional encounters, citizen feedback, correction, and renewed expectations. The findings show why transparency without intelligibility, participation without visible influence, digitalization without inclusion, and moral education without consistent institutional practice may fail to generate durable trust. Particular attention is paid to the mahalla as a bridge between interpersonal and institutional trust and to the risks of particularism, informal mediation, digital exclusion, and formalistic consultation. The article concludes that the defensible policy objective is not to maximize trust as such, but to increase institutional trustworthiness while preserving critical scrutiny, lawful contestation, and mechanisms of trust repair.
Keywords: trust, institutional trust, social relations, New Uzbekistan, human dignity, procedural fairness, transparency, civic participation, mahalla, trustworthiness