(This is an excellent column by my friend Ron Faucheux, Dec. 12)
Founded on bedrock principles of democracy, natural rights and freedom, America is uniquely shaped by its institutions. They provide stability, innovation, economic dynamism and global influence.
But with populist uprisings on the right and left taking aim at established power centers, America’s institutions have lost public confidence to a dangerous degree.
A poll from the Partnership for Public Service found that trust in government has declined from a low 35% in 2022 to a dismal 23% in 2024. Only 15% of those polled believe government is transparent (down six points) and a whopping 66% think it’s incompetent (up 10 points). Shockingly, only 29% said democracy is working and 68% said it’s not.
Public confidence has fallen during both Democratic and Republican administrations. The latest Pew Research survey found, for example, that only 17% of Americans now say they trust government in Washington, down from 77% in 1964. That’s not just a drop, it’s a collapse.
The institution in the worst shape, according to the Economist/YouGov survey, is Congress. Just 10% of Americans express high levels of confidence in it. What does this say about the 9 out of 10 citizens who feel otherwise?
Among the three branches of national government, the presidency rates 30% and the U.S. Supreme Court 24% — both low, but better than Congress.
These results should set off alarm bells. Yet Americans have grown so accustomed to polls showing low levels of trust in government that bad numbers are no longer a jolt.
But tumbling confidence is not limited to primarily political institutions. The Economist/YouGov poll tests institutions in multiple sectors. The military is the only one that draws a clear majority of Americans (54%) expressing high confidence in it.
Republicans think much better of the military than do Democrats; Whites think better of it than do Blacks and Hispanics. There is a wide generational divide: U.S. adults 45 and older are far more likely than those under 45 to have strong confidence in the military.
Coming in second in confidence rankings is small business. It does best among men, Republicans, seniors and Whites. While small business ranks well compared to other institutions, it still wins this trust from only 50% of Americans surveyed….. [The rest of this column is at this link.]
