Abstract. As part of the research in this article, it was established that the interpretation of the term trust is ambiguous, which makes it difficult to interpret it unambiguously and leads to differences of opinion. And at the same time, they all complement the essence of trust. And the essence of trust is honesty. It has also been established that methods for measuring trust are also an important factor in establishing international relations and also ensure stability, sustainability, and efficiency in relations between countries. The neoconservative approach of trust in government authorities is considered as part of the political and legal culture of citizens; deliberative (deliberative) democracy says that trust is built in the process of interaction between citizens and political parties, and is reflected in democratic discourse. Methods for measuring trust complement the main objective. The regularities of measuring trust methods are studied. Due to the fact that there are methods for measuring trust, in modernized socio-political science they take the results of public opinion polls. The survey allows subjects to self-report their trust, and indirect measures predict respondents' trust behavior by observing their behavior and reactions. The issues of measuring trust methods using the example of the USA and US politicians are also considered. The concept of trust, the concept of “soft power”, the use of “smart power”, “soft power”, “hard power” are also considered. The concept of trust described in the Oxford Handbook can be called the Oxford approach, which is based on the idea that good choices by citizens in a democracy involve awareness of risks and an up-to-date assessment of threats to national and international security. It has been established that trust in political institutions is considered an important basis for the stability of democratic political systems.