| dc.description.abstract | This thesis concerns the question whether it is possible to create trust by the use of
legislation. I ask the question whether the Swedish District Heating Act (DHA) can
be deemed to be fit for its purpose. I show that the main purpose of the DHA is the
creation of trust. On a more concrete level, therefore, my research task is to evaluate
whether the DHA has the potential to create trust.
I examine the concept of trust with a multi-disciplinary approach, drawing on trust
research from various disciplines, e.g. law, economics, sociology and psychology.
Against the background of this examination, I argue that the trust creating purpose of
the DHA could be understood either as a purpose to create personal trust or as a
purpose to create system trust. Personal trust is defined as trust in a specific district
heating company, whereas system trust is defined as trust in district heating in an
institutional sense. As the trust-creating purpose of the DHA can be understood in
either of these two senses, the feasibility of achieving either of these, understood as
objectives of the DHA, is evaluated.
The evaluations show that the regulatory design of the DHA partly contains elements
which could create personal trust, but are detrimental to creating system trust, and
partly contains elements which could create system trust, but are detrimental to
creating personal trust. This contradictory regulatory design of the DHA leaves the
evaluations with a pessimistic conclusion: the DHA can only be deemed to have poor
potential to be fit for its purpose to create trust, regardless of the main purpose of the
DHA is understood as creating personal trust or system trust.
To rectify the situation, I put forward different regulatory ideas for the legislature to
consider. The main point of my suggestions is that it is not possible to induce both
personal trust and system trust at the same time. Therefore, if trust creation is the
main purpose of regulation, the legislature ought to choose between creation of
personal trust or system trust. If personal trust is chosen, I argue that self-regulation
is the best way to go; if system trust is chosen, I argue that strict regulation with
mandatory rules and sufficient monitoring and enforcement is needed. | sv |
