state and local governments

by Lydia Saad

Americans' persistent high confidence in local government contrasts with their generally diminishing confidence in the legislative and executive branches over the past five or so years.

Confidence in the executive branch fell annually during George W. Bush's presidency from 2002 through 2008; it then surged in 2009 after President Barack Obama took office, but has since declined.

Local government has fared particularly well over time, being the only governmental entity not to have lost any of Americans' trust since 1997. Trust in state government is now 11 percentage points lower than in 1997, while trust in the executive and legislative branches is down by 15 points or more.

Southerners and Easterners Give States Highest Ratings

Residents of the South and East currently express the most confidence in their state governments and those in the Midwest and West, the least. Over the past decade, Southern residents are on the upper end of trust in state government and Western residents on the lower end.

With the two major political parties broadly sharing control of the nation's statehouses and governors' mansions, national ratings of state government are far less partisan than are ratings of the legislative and executive branches of the federal government. Majorities of Republicans (60%), independents (59%), and Democrats (52%) say they have a great deal or fair amount of confidence in their state government.

Bottom Line

Americans' confidence in local government remains high, as it has for more than a decade, amid plummeting ratings for the presidency and Congress, and occasional downturns in ratings of state governments. Currently, both local and state governments receive more public trust than does either the executive or the legislative branch.

State and local governments cannot perform many of the policy roles for which the federal government is responsible. Yet state and local officials could find that the public trust they enjoy would provide them strong public support for taking more control from Washington of the areas they are already involved in, such as education, health and human services, transportation, environmental regulations, and crime control.

Date: 2015-01-12; view: 671