Congressional Polarization

The confidence level in congress is as low as 5% in our beloved republic. One of the many complications is the lack of trust we have in the system. Although with all the flaws within

This written report is appertaining to the book How Congress Works and Why You Should Care, written by Lee H. Hamilton. This book is published by Indiana University Press in Bloomington, IL, it was copyrighted in 2004 by the publisher.

Linkage institutions can be defined as institutions that connect citizens with the government. Examples of linkage institutions include elections, political parties, interest groups, and the media. Elections specifically are supposed to encourage public participation in the selection of governmental officials. Unfortunately, low voter turnout has proved that elections are an imperfect linkage institution. Elections depend on voters to be successful, and some factors that relate to the likelihood of voting include age, education, and race. Although some people underestimate the power of the vote, voter turnout is

1965: The year we lost our trust in government is a newspaper editorial written by Bill Bishop. This article talks about how not just the people of the United States have lost a great amount of trust in their government, but how all industrialized countries have lost trust in their government. Bill Bishop has written various other articles and editorials like In elections, self-identity wins over issues. He has also been mentioned in other articles as a good investigative story writer. One of these articles includes Capitol Chronicle.

In the past century, people continued to express an increasingly discontent view of Congress especially true when one looks back before the Clinton Impeachment debacle As the size of the nation and the number of congressman have grown, the congress has come under attack by both public influences and congressman themselves. Yet looking at one congressman's relationship with his or her constituents, it would be hard to believe that this is the branch of government that has come under suspect. In "If Ralph Nader says congress is 'The broken branch,' how come we love our congressman so much?" author Richard F. Fenno, Jr., provides insight into this view and why, through congress coming under fire, constituents still feel positively about

If it is fair to assume that social performance and economic conditions cause variations in the degree of trust individuals place in their government, it is also fair to assume that members of the same birth cohort, who have experienced similar economic and social changes at the same lifecycle stages, will then place a similar degree of trust in their government, and on a micro level, the party which they belong to. Therefore, the dramatic historical events experienced by individuals in the youth stage of their life, such as economic depression, war, immigration, and cultural change, have an especially strong impact on their political attitudes, as they are in the formative stage of their political learning (Braungart & Braungart 1986). The attitudes that are formed during a cohort's youth provide the foundation for the way they will interpret the political events that follow, which, in opposition to the theories of lifecycle theorists, suggests that attitudes and behavior do not obviously change over time (Braungart & Braungart 1986). Cohorts that grew up during the economic depressions of the 1930s, and experienced World War II hold different beliefs, and we would argue, different degrees of trust, then the cohorts that grew up during some of the more affluent, post-WWII years. Because of this difference in

When evaluating my own political trust and efficacy I would rate them relatively low. I do not have high political trust because I don’t believe the government makes the best decisions for the people half of the time. I believe that government officials put

Countries with basic history or society, then, ought to have comparable levels of trust in government. Economic reasons are by all account not the only driving powers of the decrease in trust around the world. Political and social parameters are additionally having an effect on everything. Continuous political embarrassments, wild debasement and the occasionally exaggerated center of the media on these issues have likewise contributed what's coming to them to the decay of trust in government foundations and political pioneers. Building political trust towards great administration, by definition, suggests the political-authenticity connection in the middle of trust and great administration. Authenticity exemplifies the assent that residents accord to the decision government and/or state

Political organization is the framework for a government’s operation. It is generally highly varied between different governments, but often takes one of several standard forms, which tend to be categorized as tending toward democratic or an authoritarian. However, whatever its structure may be, a government must have political legitimacy in order to function and maintain a monopoly over its subjects and affairs. Government is perceived to be legitimate by those it rules when its political organization operates unequivocally within certain parameters deemed appropriate by its subjects, and when punishment and law is executed equitably. Given that the parameters for government affairs are based on public perception, which is built off of societal

An important relationship exists between confidence in government and social trust which can be linked to public goods provision (Newton & Norris, Confidence in Public Institutions: Faith, Culture or Performance?, 1999). Social trust is broadly defined as trusting in others and can refer to both individuals and higher levels of analysis. Netwon & Norris found that social trust is not strongly associated with measure of public confidence at the individual level and personality types or cultural factors may be more significant at this level. However, at the national level there is a significant relationship between social trust and public confidence. The relationship is that social trust and high public confidence are highly

We do not trust and do not wish to trust who runs our system because we have been hurt in the past by sneaky situations. That is why I believe that we should have an open and transparent government. Transparency reaps authenticity and participation for the people. That allows the public to have a say and participation in the role of government. I believe that this would help to restore the distrust that most of our citizens have toward our leaders. This would help strengthen leaders to make decisions and not have the public question them. How this could be accomplished is having the executive departments and government agencies open opportunities to Americans to participate in the making of new policies. This would also increase jobs and the knowledge of the happenings behind closed doors. Since we are citizens of this country, we should be made aware of what is happening within our

Could “ordinary Americans” accomplish a better a job of solving national problems than government officials? Study polls show that over the course of years the trust that Americans had in the government has slowly diminished. This change is the government’s fault. Someone doesn’t want to install their trust in somebody else who is not truthful. Americans should not trust government officials because they are not always truthful, treat citizens like criminals, and they are not doing anything that truly make America “better”.

Throughout the semester we have been discussing the idea of polarization and political trust among the mass public. Hetherington and Rudolph’s central theory was based around the idea that polarization is at an all-time high in the United States. Many Americans are consistently displaying polarization in their policy preferences as well as how they feel about members of the opposite party. Due to the public lack of trust in the government, the probability of Congress compromising reduces. Since there is already an increasingly polarized political environment that has difficulties passing laws, the book discovers that trust in the government helps explain the reason why Washington is dysfunctional. Political trust helps create consensus in the public by providing a bridge between individuals across both party lines. A challenge in measuring polarization comes from the idea that many American’s don’t want to view themselves as extreme so they will typically take on moderate views. Also some individuals are not as politically knowledgeable so they usually fall in the middle. They solved this challenge by employing alternatives to a literal definition of polarization. Lastly, Hetherington and Rudolph stated that “a polarization of trust stands in the way of the emergence of public consensus on things, such as, public policy (H&R, 2015, pg.25)”. Also, a polarization of trust has cause people to become unwilling to make ‘ideological sacrifices.’

Throughout time the concept of democracy have been debated, starting out as far back as Plato. Will citizens know enough information to make informed decisions and if so, will they choose to cooperate? In the America’s attempt to maintain a Democratic nation, it requests that citizens vote on local, state and presidential levels. However, most of the citizens are unable to form a valid opinion because of the general lack of knowledge of how the government works.

For the past twenty years, the Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan has been measuring the level of Americans' trust and confidence in their politicians and quasi-political trust and confidence in their political institutions and their leaders. "Political" being all levels of government, and "quasi-political" churches, labor unions, large professional/business associations, educational institutions, and the like. The result is that a very sharp decline has taken place every year since