What Americans think about politics 223Figure 6.5 shows that a majority of Americans give positive evaluations of a wide range
of government programs, suggesting that the downward trend in trust is not the result
of people being increasingly unhappy with what government actually does.
A second response is that although Americans don’t like the government in general,
they tend to be far more satisfied with their own representatives in Washington (see
Chapter 11). One possibility is that putting a human face on government by asking about
specific individuals in office improves respondents’ opinions because it calls to mind
different considerations. Asking about “the government” may call to mind a vast room
of bureaucrats pushing paperwork from one desk to another, whereas asking about
“your representative” may lead people to think of someone working on their behalf.1987
10
0
20
30
40
50
60
70
80%
1992 1997 2002 2007 2012 2016
People who agree that the
government is really run for
the benefit of all peoplePeople who agree that when
something is run by the
government, it is usually
wasteful and inefficient195819661974 1982 1990 1998 2006 2017
10
0
20
30
40
50
60
70
80%
Economic revival;
popular president
(Reagan)Financial crisis
(G. W. Bush)Continued
economic
weakness
(Obama)Watergate scandal;
poor economic
conditions (Nixon)Rollout of A ordable
Care Act (Obama)Recession; unpopular
president (G. H. W. Bush)2014
People who trust the
government always or
most of the timeFIGURE
6.4What Do
Americans
Think about
Government?A significant percentage of Americans
have always been distrustful
and disparaging of the federal
government—and the percentage
of people holding such views has
increased markedly in the last
generation. Does the perception that
government is wasteful and inefficient
make it easier or harder to enact new
policies? How might the decline in
trust explain the rise of the Tea Party
organization and candidates like
Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders?Source: Pew Research Center, “Public Trust
in Government, 1958–2017,” May 5, 2015,
http://www.people-press.org (accessed 11/8/17).Full_07_APT_64431_ch06_198-231.indd 223 16/11/18 1:38 PM