what is it about government that americans dislike?

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1 what is it about government that americans dislike? The American public s level of hostility toward government became a major issue in the 1990s. In this edited volume, twenty-four of the country s leading students of public attitudes toward government in the United States address the reasons for this hostility. In fourteen original chapters, the authors explain why people s approval of government dropped so precipitously in the late 1960s, why some parts of the government (such as the Supreme Court) are better liked than others (such as the Congress), and why certain actions by political elites are particularly upsetting to much of the American public. Uniting several of the contributions is the theme that dissatisfaction with government occurs not just when people dislike governmental policies but also when they dislike the manner in which those policies are made. Another unifying theme is the potential danger of a public with nothing but disdain for its own political system. John R. Hibbing is Professor of Political Science at the University of Nebraska Lincoln, where he has taught since 1981, specializing in the American Congress and American public opinion. He has been a NATO Fellow in Science in Great Britain, a Fulbright scholar in Spain, and a Visiting Professor in Hungary, and he has also edited the Legislative Studies Quarterly. His most recent book, Congress as Public Enemy: Public Attitudes toward American Political Institutions (with Elizabeth Theiss-Morse), won the APSA s Fenno Prize in 1996 as the best book on legislatures. Elizabeth Theiss-Morse is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Nebraska Lincoln. She has published research on citizen participation, political tolerance, and public attitudes toward government, and is a co-author of two award-winning books: Congress as Public Enemy: Public Attitudes toward American Political Institutions (awarded the APSA s Fenno Prize in 1996 for the best book published on legislatures) and With Malice Toward Some: How People Make Civil Liberties Judgments (awarded the APSA s Best Book in Political Psychology Prize in 1996).

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3 Cambridge Studies in Political Psychology and Public Opinion General Editors James H. Kuklinski, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Dennis Chong, Northwestern University Editorial Board Stanley Feldman, State University of New York, Stony Brook Roger D. Masters, Dartmouth College William J. McGuire, Yale University Norbert Schwarz, Zentrum für Umfragen, Methoden und Analysen ZUMA, Mannheim, FRG David O. Sears, University of California, Los Angeles Paul M. Sniderman, Stanford University and Survey Research Center, University of California, Berkeley James A. Stimson, University of North Carolina This series has been established in recognition of the growing sophistication in the resurgence of interest in political psychology and the study of public opinion. Its focus ranges from the kinds of mental processes that people employ when they think about democratic processes and make political choices to the nature and consequences of macro-level public opinion. Some of the works draw on developments in cognitive and social psychology and relevant areas of philosophy. Appropriate subjects include the use of heuristics, the roles of core values and moral principles in political reasoning, the effects of expertise and sophistication, the roles of affect and emotion, and the nature of cognition and information processing. The emphasis is on systematic and rigorous empirical analysis, and a wide range of methodologies are appropriate: traditional surveys, experimental surveys, laboratory experiments, focus groups, and in-depth interviews, as well as others. These empirically oriented studies also consider normative implications for democratic politics generally. Politics, not psychology, is the primary focus, and it is expected that most works will deal with mass publics and democratic politics, although work on nondemocratic publics is not excluded. Other works will examine traditional topics in public opinion research, as well as contribute to the growing literature on aggregate opinion and its role in democratic societies. Other books in the series Asher Arian, Security Threatened: Surveying Israeli Opinion on Peace and War James DeNardo, The Amateur Strategist: Intuitive Deterrence Theories and the Politics of the Nuclear Arms Race Series list continues on page following the Index

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5 what is it about government that americans dislike? edited by john r. hibbing University of Nebraska Lincoln elizabeth theiss-morse University of Nebraska Lincoln

6 cambridge university press Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo, Delhi, Tokyo, Mexico City Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York Information on this title: / Cambridge University Press 2001 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2001 A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data What is it about government that Americans dislike? / edited by John R. Hibbing, Elizabeth Theiss-Morse. p. cm. (Cambridge studies in political psychology and public opinion) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN ISBN (pb.) 1. Public administration United States. 2. Public opinion United States. 3. Political culture United States. 4. Political psychology. I. Hibbing, John R. II. Theiss-Morse, Elizabeth. III. Series. JK2443.W dc isbn Hardback isbn Paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Information regarding prices, travel timetables, and other factual information given in this work is correct at the time of first printing but Cambridge University Press does not guarantee the accuracy of such information thereafter.

7 Contents Figures Tables Contributors page x xii xv Introduction: Studying the American People s Attitudes Toward Government 1 john r. hibbing and elizabeth theiss-morse Part I: When Do Americans Tend to Be Dissatisfied with Government? 1. Political Trust Revisited: Déjà Vu All Over Again? 9 jack citrin and samantha luks 2. We re All in This Together: The Decline of Trust in Government, john r. alford 3. Were the Halcyon Days Really Golden? An Analysis of Americans Attitudes about the Political System, stephen earl bennett 4. Public Trust in Government in the Reagan Years and Beyond 59 Virginia a. chanley, thomas j. rudolph, and wendy m. rahn vii

8 Contents Part II: With Which Governmental Institutions Do Americans Tend to Be Dissatisfied? 5. Public Confidence in the Leaders of American Governmental Institutions 83 lilliard e. richardson, jr., david j. houston, and chris sissie hadjiharalambous 6. Linking Presidential and Congressional Approval During Unified and Divided Governments 98 jeffrey l. bernstein 7. Is Washington Really the Problem? 118 eric m. uslaner 8. Explaining Public Support for Devolution: The Role of Political Trust 134 marc j. hetherington and john d. nugent Part III: Do Actions on the Part of Politicians Cause Americans to Be Dissatisfied with Government? 9. On Red Capes and Charging Bulls: How and Why Conservative Politicians and Interest Groups Promoted Public Anger 157 amy fried and douglas b. harris 10. A Reassessment of Who s to Blame: A Positive Case for the Public Evaluation of Congress 175 david w. brady and sean m. theriault 11. Process Performance: Public Reaction to Legislative Policy Debate 193 carolyn l. funk Part IV: How Is Dissatisfaction with Government Measured and Incorporated into Political Theory? 12. Trust in Federal Government: The Phenomenon and Its Antecedents 209 diana owen and jack dennis 13. The Psychology of Public Dissatisfaction with Government 227 tom r. tyler viii

9 Contents 14. The Means Is the End 243 john r. hibbing and elizabeth theiss-morse References 251 Index 271 ix

10 Figures 2.1. Trust Government in Washington to Do What Is Right page Trust Government in Washington Most or All of the Time Trust Government in Washington Most or All of the Time by Race Trust Government in Washington Most or All of the Time by Education Trust Government in Washington Most or All of the Time by Age Trust Government in Washington Most or All of the Time by Income Trust Government in Washington Most or All of the Time by Party Identification Trust Government in Washington Most or All of the Time by Ideology Trust and Proportion Citing Foreign Affairs or Defense as the Number One Problem Government Trust, Responsiveness, and Confidence, 1980:1 to 1997: The Ideological Confidence Gap, The Impact of Experience on the Evaluation of Legal Authorities 234 x

11 Figures Influences on Judgments About the Fairness of a Legal Procedure Aspects of Experience Influencing Performance Evaluations and Legitimacy Competence and Benevolence as Antecedents of Evaluation 241 xi

12 Tables 1.1. Trends in Political Trust, page Correlations Between Political Trust and Approval Ratings Correlation Coefficients Between Presidential Approval and Congressional Approval by Political Awareness Explaining Political Trust Americans Trust in Government, 1958 and F-Tests of Blocks of Coefficients VAR Results Logit Results for Confidence in Legislative Leaders Logit Results for Confidence in Executive Branch Leaders Logit Results for Confidence in Judicial Leaders Models of Legislative Approval, Divided and Unified Governments Correlation Between Congressional and Presidential Approval, Controlling for Strength of Partisanship, Correlation Between Congressional and Presidential Approval, Controlling for Cynicism, Correlation Between Congressional and Presidential Approval, Controlling for Political Knowledge, xii

13 Tables 6.5. Correlation Between Congressional and Presidential Approval, Controlling for Strength of Partisanship and Political Knowledge, Correlation Between Congressional and Presidential Approval, Controlling for Cynicism and Political Knowledge, Regression Estimates for Preference for State or Federal Government Regression Estimates for Trust in Levels of Government Regression Analysis of Trust in State Government by Party Identification Descriptive Statistics for Explanatory Variables Proportion of People Identifying Federal and State Government as the Level They Have the Most Faith in, by State Law, Efficiency of State Government, and State Fiscal Capacity, Whether Respondent Identifies Federal Government as the One in Which He or She Has the Most Confidence (Logistic Regression Estimates) Explaining the Public s Disapproval of Congress Who Gets Media Coverage? A Multivariate Regression Answer OLS Regression Estimates of Negative Affect in Response to Congressional Debate Mean Response to Debate Conditions by Individual Differences in Conflict Avoidance on Index of Negative Affect Multiple Regression Analysis (OLS) of Institutional Support The Role of Procedural Justice in Shaping Evaluations of the Legitimacy of the Supreme Court The Role of Procedural Justice in Shaping Evaluations of Congress 236 xiii

14 Tables Elements of Fair Decision-Making Procedures: The Supreme Court Elements of Fair Decision-Making Procedures: Congress 240 xiv

15 Contributors John R. Alford is Associate Professor of Political Science at Rice University. Stephen Earl Bennett is Professor of Political Science at the University of Cincinnati. Jeffrey L. Bernstein is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Eastern Michigan University. David W. Brady is Professor in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. Virginia A. Chanley is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Florida International University. Jack Citrin is Professor of Political Science at the University of California Berkeley. Jack Dennis is Professor of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin Madison. Amy Fried is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Maine. Carolyn L. Funk is Associate Professor of Political Science at Virginia Commonwealth University. Chris Sissie Hadjiharalambous is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Northern Iowa University. Douglas B. Harris is Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Texas Dallas. Marc J. Hetherington is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Bowdoin College. John R. Hibbing is Professor of Political Science at the University of Nebraska Lincoln. xv

16 Contributors David J. Houston is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Tennessee. Samantha Luks is a graduate student in Political Science at the University of California Berkeley. John D. Nugent is a graduate student in Political Science at the University of Texas Austin. Diana Owen is Associate Professor of Government at Georgetown University. Wendy M. Rahn is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Minnesota. Lilliard E. Richardson, Jr., is Associate Professor of Public Administration at the University of Missouri. Thomas J. Rudolph is a graduate student in Political Science at the University of Minnesota. Elizabeth Theiss-Morse is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Nebraska Lincoln. Sean M. Theriault is a graduate student in Political Science at Stanford University. Tom R. Tyler is Professor of Psychology at New York University. Eric M. Uslaner is Professor of Government at the University of Maryland. xvi