The Confidence Gap during the Reagan Years, 1981–1987

Abstract

Remember the confidence gap, the lack of public faith in the functioning of major institutions, which started in the late-1960s and seemingly bottomed out in the early 1980s?1 Since then, the nation's economic recovery and disinflation, presided over by a President who evoked pride in the nation and faith in its promise and achievements, resulted in a sizeable improvement in many of the indicators of public morale. The malaise to which Jimmy Carter called attention when he lectured the nation in mid-summer 1979 about the existence of a crisis of confidence . . . that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will seemed to be over.2 Seven years later, in the midst of a new caused by the Iran-contra scandal, Ronald Reagan tried to convince the nation that during the past six years, we have done much together to restore the faith and confidence and respect of our people and our country.3 But even prior to the scandal, the evidence from the opinion polls did not confirm this hopeful conclusion. Confidence in governmental institutions did improve between 1983