How Much Do Americans Trust Their Government? An Empirical Study

Abstract

Confidence in the federal government of the United States has been very low in recent years. The reasons for the low regard with which American politicians and institutions are held is apparent from reading the front page of every major newspaper in America. The constant lies by politicians, the various scandals in Washington and elsewhere, mass murders by federal government officials going back to Waco, Ruby Ridge, and even Wounded Knee have destroyed whatever trust and confidence Americans once had in their government. Various cover-ups, such as the IRS scandal where IRS employees targeted conservative groups, disappearing emails, both by IRS officials and Hillary Clinton, the suspected murders of enemies of the Clintons, President Johnson and others, the Nixon Watergate scandal, annual deficits that are out of control regardless of which party is in power, military invasions of countries that pose no threat to the United States, and so forth, have all chipped away at the integrity of government officials and institutions. Many people are starting to think of secession as a viable option to the status quo.This paper uses the data gathered from the most recent World Values Survey for the United States. The sample size was 2232. The following demographic variables were examined to determine whether different subgroups had different opinions about the level of confidence in government: gender, age, education, marital status, income level, social class, sector of employment, the importance of religion and the region of the country. The study found that overall confidence was low, and that it was sometimes lower for some subgroups than others. This paper is part of a series that examines confidence in government. Other studies in the series include a longitudinal study of the United States and a study of confidence in 60 countries.