After several years of polls showing rising confidence in the federal government, fewer Americans today than in 1997 say they trust government to do the right thing, a new survey has found.
Just 29 percent of Americans trust the government to do what is right always or most of the time, a national public opinion poll released Monday found. Survey researchers Peter Hart and Robert Teeter conducted the survey on behalf of the Council for Excellence in Government. When Hart and Teeter asked the same question in 1997, 38 percent of Americans gave Washington a thumbs-up.
Public trust in government began a steady decline in the late 1960s, from a high in 1964 of 76 percent of Americans expressing confidence in the federal government to a low of 21 percent in 1994. Confidence began to rise after 1994, but now appears to have leveled off.
Hart and Teeter said the poll showed people feel a "disconnect" with government. "The perception is that the government is 'the' government, not 'my' government," Hart said. People don't have a sense of ownership in the government, he said. A majority of respondents said government today is not "of, by and for the people."
Civil servants can take heart in knowing the public doesn't blame them for what's wrong with government. Only six percent of people surveyed said government's problems are the fault of its employees. The top two groups blamed for government's problems were special interest groups and the media.
Despite their feeling of alienation, survey respondents said the best way to improve government is to get more Americans involved in public policy. More people should vote, schools should do a better job of teaching the value of civic duty, people should get involved in schools, and citizens should provide more feedback to elected officials, respondents said.
In fact, just four percent of respondents said better government lies in the hands of government employees. And on the scale of ways to improve government, better management ranked eighth behind seven different ways to boost citizen involvement and the responsiveness of elected officials.
In addition, while 48 percent of Americans think honesty and integrity are the qualities most needed in elected officials and 23 percent said officials must put the public interest ahead of personal interest, just eight percent cited "putting a priority on performance and results" as a necessary leadership quality.
"It's not that performance and management are not important," said Patricia McGinnis, president of the Council for Excellence in Government. "Government executives need to think about management in a broader way, including engaging people in decisions in a meaningful way."
While public trust in government is on the decline, the number of people who say they would be willing to work for Uncle Sam is increasing. More than 30 percent of survey respondents said they would be very likely to consider a job in government service at some point in their careers. That number has nearly doubled from 1997, when just 16 percent of respondents said they would want to work in the public sector.
"There's a hidden thirst out there of public interest to go into government," McGinnis said. The government needs to make federal service look more inviting and less like job applicants would wind up stuck in the middle of a thick bureaucracy, McGinnis said.
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