Institutional Trust in the USA
By Best in Moderation
Gallop came out with a poll lately, asking people to rank their confidence in the institutions (in general) of the USA. While the questions were generic and lacking a bit of nuance (for example, people can be for some religious institutions and against others) I felt it gave an interesting overview of what's happened in our nation lately.
Here are the results, and under that, my analysis. Feel free to chime in in the comment on the analysis or observations, or your own opinion of the institutions and your confidence in them.
Church and Religion
- Decline in trust in religion and churches, but still about 40-50% have faith (yes, pun intended).
- Most of the opinion on Churches has dropped to the some or not a lot categories, starting in the 2000s. This is also the time of the revelation of the Catholic Church child abuse cases
Supreme Court
- Supreme Court a bit lower than Churches, also declining to about 35-40%.
- Most people have no strong opinion on the Supreme Court, in terms of confidence.
Congress
- Congress MASSIVE decline, starting in 1991 when it was halved, and then dropping to the single digits (7-13%) since 2010.
- Congress is fascinating. Most people have a low opinion of them, yet their re-election rates are in the high 80% to mid 90%. Everyone agrees Congress sucks; no one agrees who in Congress sucks
Organized Labor
- Organized labor steady at 25-35% except a dip in 2007-2009
- Opposition to Organized Labor has held steady, while confidence dropped to neutral through the Reagan years. This probably was because of the rhetoric surrounding unions in that time, which carries over to today.
Big Business
- Big Business decline from 25-25% to 15-25%
- Few people have really liked Big Business, but confidence broke down post 9-11. Surprisingly, the loss post 9-11 was greater than the loss post-2007 recession crisis.
Public Schools
- Public schools steady at 30-40% since 1981, with a dip in 2014
- People have shifted completely over in public schools, with opposition growing and support dwindling. The neutral position hasn't shifted much (which probably means people who did support it went neutral, and those who were neutral went negative).
Newspapers
- Newspapers steady decline from 40% to 23%
- Enthusiasm for newspapers never was very high, but it has remained steady. Meanwhile opposition has grown quite a bit, more than doubling. This started around 2004, which coincides with the rise of online social media platforms and cable TV news dominance.
Military
- Military steady increase from 50% to 70% with a boost in 2002
- Opposition to the military dropped drastically post 9-11, but quickly recovered post Iraq invasion. Mild support hasn't changed much either. Only Enthusiastic support has grown, almost doubling in the time measured.
Presidency
- Presidency steady decline from 50% to 35% with boosts in 1991 and 2009
- The Presidency didn't see a lot of change in neutral or mildly positive opinion, or complete opposition. It did see a slight increase in confidence with Trump's election, but also a massive spike in lack of confidence at the same time. This trend started post-Iraq invasion, was reduced by the election of Obama, and increased again under Trump. It reflects people's attitudes about all three topics.
Medical Care System
- Medical care system dropped drastically in the 1980s, leveling out at 35-45% excepting this year, which saw a rise to 50%
- After the 1970s, no one really likes our healthcare system. It saw a very slight boost post ACA, but that quickly faded. Most people seem to feel the same way over time about it.
Banks
- Banks steady at 40-50% until 2007, then dropped to 20-30%
- Banks saw a massive dip post-recession crisis, but has largely remained what it was throughout the time measured. Obviously this is due to the recession crisis, but as to what is drawing it back up, perhaps consumer memory is short.
TV News
- TV news dropped from around 35% to around 20%, starting in 2006
- Television news lost it's enthusiasm around the early 2000s, but most people's confidence didn't start to drop until 2007. From then on it's been a downward slide. Given the election coverage from then on, it's not surprising.
Police
- Police hovers around 50% with a boost in 2003-2005
- Police high confidence has remained steady, while recently low confidence has increased a bit. Where we see significant change is from a drop around 2014, where high or medium confidence shifts more to some or little. This could be attributed to the growing success of BLM and similar groups.
Criminal Justice System
- Criminal justice systems increased from 15-20% to 23-28%
- The criminal justice system saw a boost post 9-11, and a smaller one after Obama's election. The shifts were large in range, as low confidence ebbed both times (whereas most other results show a shift from neutral to either positive or negative).
Small Businesses
- Small Business increased slightly from 60-65% to 65-70%.
- People like Small Businesses, and mostly have throughout the timeline. Except recently, where they like them a lot (finally shifting from some to a lot or more)
Health Maintenance Organizations
- Health Maintenance Organizations steadily low at 17-19% with a significant drop in 2008.
- Few really have confidence in their HMOs, but it did shift from little to some post ACA.
Internet News
- Internet news started small (20%) and has declined to 16%.
- In the 2000s, people mostly only had some confidence in internet news. Now they have very little. That also coincides with the rise of social media platforms.
TL:DR
- Greatest confidence is Military, Small Businesses and Church, in that order.
- Least confidence is Congress, Presidency, and TV News, in that order
- Most variability is the Church, the Police, and the Presidency, in that order.
- Least variability is harder, with Congress, Big Business, Newspapers, HMOs, TV News, Banks, the criminal Justice system and internet all skewing negative, and the Military slightly skewing positive.
My General Analysis:
- Interestingly the biggest lack of confidence is in the Presidency (5-8%), not Congress (4-7%), with most people simply thinking Congress isn't good, but slightly more people thinking there is nothing to be confident about in a President.
- It's also interesting to note that the Military is the only organization which has little variability and a positive skew, with Small Businesses nearly there.
- Trust has been declining in most organized structures over time, with only a few outpacing this general decline.
- Most impact is seen from 9-11, the Iraq Invasion, the 2007 recession, the ACA, and the elections of Obama and Trump.
Comments
Post a Comment