Since The Civic Culture, political trust has been seen as vital for democratic stability, fostering civic engagement, voter turnout, and law-abiding behavior. Yet, it is time to rethink these assumptions. Legitimacy relies on consent, but compliance should be earned, not blindly given. Citizens should trust authorities proven competent, honest, and impartial—while credulous faith in ineffective or corrupt institutions can harm democracy. A three-year Horizon-funded project (2023–2025) TRUEDEM: Trust in European Democracies investigated these dynamics, asking whether citizens can make informed judgments about government performance and what factors shape their evaluations. It examined the role of direct experience with public services, as well as information (or misinformation) from civic intermediaries, including media, NGOs, and watchdog organizations. It also explored the societal conditions, state policies, and individual characteristics that enable—or prevent—accurate and reliable assessments of governance. TRUEDEM collected cross-national survey data on trust, compares attitudes with governance indicators, examines the consequences of both cynical mistrust and credulous trust, and develops policy strategies to enhance informed trust and institutional trustworthiness. Coordinated in Austria, it included partners across 12 European countries.