Poll finds government falling in public’s esteem

The public views the federal government less favorably this year than last, Gallup poll results published Tuesday indicate.

Slightly more than a third of respondents to an early August survey by The Gallup Organization expressed a "positive" or "somewhat positive" view of the government. This represents a drop of seven percentage points from a year ago, when 41 percent of Americans surveyed said they looked favorably upon the government.

For this year's poll, conducted from Aug. 9 to Aug. 11, Gallup asked a random sampling of 518 adults to rate their opinion of 25 industries, including the government, in one of five categories ranging from "very positive" to "very negative." The survey has a margin of error of up to five percentage points.

Gallup has completed similar surveys for four years, but only added the government to the list of industries last year and therefore cannot identify longer trends in views on the government, said Frank Newport, editor-in-chief of the poll. Other surveys have indicated a general decline in Americans' trust of the government, dating back to the Vietnam War and Watergate scandal, he noted.

Newport said he could not speculate on why the public's image of the government might have worsened in the past year, but noted that the government wasn't alone. Americans expressed a lower regard for a number of the industries surveyed this year, he said.

For example, the public's opinion of the oil and gas industry also declined over the past year, with 21 percent of poll respondents expressing a positive view this year compared with 35 percent last year. The health-care industry saw a drop of nearly 10 percentage points, and regard for the pharmaceutical industry fell by 12 percentage points.

The 2004 Gallup poll also indicated that Democrats held the government in lower esteem than Republicans in 2003 and 2004, a result that Newport expected. Members of the political party out of power tend to express more negative views on a range of topics, he said.

But Democrats' view of the government remained relatively steady this year, while the Republicans' opinion has fallen in the past year, the Gallup poll indicated. Independents also said they viewed the government less favorably.

The Gallup poll results are interesting, but reflect general opinions of the government as opposed to opinions on federal workers, said Max Stier, president of the Partnership for Public Service, a Washington, D.C.-based good government group. The Partnership recently canvassed the public and concluded that Americans hold civil servants in high esteem.

"We found an immense reservoir of good will toward government workers, which is consistent across political parties," Stier said.

The Gallup poll asks a very different question, Stier noted, and does so months before the presidential election. At such a politically charged time, opinions may indicate distaste for the work of appointees rather than that of civil servants, he said, adding that "it's worth keeping an eye on the longer term trend."

The vast majority of the government's work is not political, but that "message is often lost," Stier said. The Gallup poll shows that agencies must try harder to "share the positive" accomplishments of career employees, he said.

Of the 25 industries surveyed in August 2004, the public looked least favorably on the oil and gas industry and most favorably on the computer industry. Sixty percent of respondents said they looked somewhat or very positively upon the computer industry.

The following list ranks the 25 industries Gallup asked about in the 2004 poll, beginning with those viewed most favorably. The numbers in parentheses indicate the percentage of respondents expressing a "somewhat" or "very" positive opinion of the industry. Government ranked 19 out of 25.

• 1. Computer (60)

• 2. Restaurant (58)

• 3. Retail (54)

• 4. Grocery (52)

• 5. Travel (50)

• 6. Farming and Agriculture (50)

• 7. Sports (49)

• 8. Real Estate (47)

• 9. Banking (46)

• 10. Internet (45)

• 11. Education (45)

• 12. Automobile (44)

• 13. Publishing (41)

• 14. Airline (38)

• 15. Telephone (38)

• 16. Movie (37)

• 17. Television and Radio (37)

• 18. Accounting (35)

• 19. Government (34)

• 20. Advertising and Public Relations (33)

• 21. Healthcare (33)

• 22. Electric and Gas Utilities (32)

• 23. Pharmaceutical (31)

• 24. Legal Field (27)

• 25. Oil and Gas Industry (21)