Can the United States government be trusted? One of the main ideas of a successful democracy is having a strong government that you can trust. Unfortunately from time to time they make statements that will begin to break this trust. The level of trust has dropped in recent years and doesn’t look to be getting better anytime soon. By taking a look at reasons not to trust the government, a closer look can be taken to try and figure out a way to increase the confidence Americans have in the federal government. Having a successful society takes many different things. One big thing is to have a government that has the ability to serve its citizens properly and in as effective manner as possible. The concept that makes this possible is trust. Without trust, humans have no reason to work together to build bigger and better things (Simpson 2). As Americans begin to lose faith, and by extension trust, in their government, it begins to get harder to create bigger and better things. Clem Brooks and Simon Cheng noted that “no trend in U.S. public opinion has elicited more enduring concern among scholars, political commentators, and politicians than declining levels of public confidence in the …show more content…
The poll highlights three parts of government, the Presidency, U.S. Supreme Court, and Congress. The confidence that the average U.S. citizen has had in Congress has never been very high, with an all-time high of thirty percent. As of the most recent poll, confidence was at an all-time low of seven percent. By comparison, the level of trust citizens have in the Presidency and the U.S. Supreme court is much higher. They have all-time highs of fifty and seventy-two percent respectively. Currently they have rates of twenty-nine percent for the Presidency and thirty percent for the Supreme Court (
Kouzes, James M., and Barry Z. Posner. Credibility: How Leaders Gain and Lose It, Why People
The United States of America is one of the most powerful nation-states in the world today. The framers of the American Constitution spent a great deal of time and effort into making sure this power wasn’t too centralized in one aspect of the government. They created three branches of government to help maintain a checks and balance system. In this paper I will discuss these three branches, the legislative, the executive, and the judicial, for both the state and federal level.
"American Government: Institutions and Policies [Hardcover]." American Government: Institutions and Policies: James Q. Wilson, Jr. John J. DiIulio, Meena Bose: 9781111830014: Amazon.com: Books. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2013.
MARTIN KELLY, Overview of United States Government and Politics Foundation and Principles, 2011, retrieved February 21st 2011 from http://americanhistory.about.com/od/governmentandpolitics/a/amgovoverview.htm
The United States government and all of its lesser conglomerates have a tough job to do when it comes to protecting its citizen’s rights. The fact of the matter is that the government doesn’t always get it right and citizen’s rights are often infringed upon, the court system aims to resolve these issues. One such instance comes to us from the Supreme Court case Bennett v. Spear in 1997. Here’s a brief summary of the case; in the area of question, the Klamath River in Oregon, it was discovered that two types of sucker fish were in peril due to falling lake levels caused by the Klamath Reservoir project. Irrigation regions and farmers downriver benefitted financially from the abundant water from the river. Their irrigation systems and therefore
From her point of view and research she found only 7% of the public approves of Congress. Contrary to the public, legislative scholars do not believe this and would argue that Congress is strong and not dysfunctional. Whether legislative scholars have this opinion because they are more educated on the subject of Congress and the lawmaking process or not, this may cause their belief in a strong Congress (Binder 85-86). Throughout her essay she assesses Congress’ recent legislative performance, which the public believes is not its best effort. In the abstract of her essay she states, “I argue that even when Congress and the president have reached agreement on the big issues of the day, Congress's problem-solving capacity appears to have fallen to new lows in recent years,” (Binder). Binder’s stance on Congress seems to align with the public’s majority view of a dysfunctional
Landy, Marc and Sidney M. Milkis. American Government: Balancing Democracy and Rights. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2004.
Edward III, G., Wattenberg, M., & Lineberry, R. (2006). Government in America: People, Politics, and Policy (12th ed.). New York, NY: Pearson Education.
Schmidt, Shelley, and Bardes. American Politics and Government Today. Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1999, pgs. 325-327.
Every citizen in the United States is a principal to one of the most powerful agents in the entire world, the president. And in order to avoid many principal-agent dilemmas, it must be necessary for the people to maintain control of their agent more than once every four years at the ballot box. This control takes the form of public opinion on a daily basis. How exactly does public opinion shape the expansive powers for the President of the United States? Is it more beneficial to the president for achieve policy goals or is it more necessary to constrain the already growing power of the presidency? Over time and through many technological advancements such as radio or internet, the president has become more available to the people and therefore the relationship between the two has become stronger. In numerous situations, this relationship has become a “two-sided blade” for power. Public opinion is inarguably the strongest check and balance of the presidential position and prevents the creation of grossly unpopular policies; however, there are certain situations where public opinion can be manipulated to gain greater informal power.
First and foremost, if people can’t believe in their leader 100% of the time then all the confidence in the world won’t help them sway opinion. If the president is honest in what they present to the public and people can trust what they say then I feel they are more likely to have a larger percentage of support, even if some don’t agree with the president’s views. I don’t expect to agree with the president all of the time but if they gives me the facts, explain the options, and then present a plan of action then I am much more likely to listen and maybe even change my own opinion of the situation. If I feel that the president has been less than honest in any area then I am much less likely to trust anything they say in the future, even if it’s something that I would normally agree
Ziad K. Abdelnour, the CEO of a private investment firm, states that, “Trust is earned, respect is given, and loyalty is demonstrated. Betrayal of any one of those is to lose all three.” This quote in two sentences speaks volume to the reader. Trust is an important and key component to any relationship. Whether you are married, have a mutual relationship, a friendship, or just a family member; trust plays a key part in the relationship. Without trust relationships crumble.
The American government prides itself on the foundational principle of democracy which allows individual voices to be heard. Afterall, the roots of power in our nation stem from the people. The Constitution was established to ensure the balance of powers among the federal government, state legislature, and the common people. Time, however, has worked against the American people in the battle towards democracy. The idea of a governing body drawing its power directly from its constituents has been undermined by the corrupt nature of modern politics where politicians act out of self-interest. While the Constitution and later amendments had every intention of securing basic liberties, certain limitations later undermined the original intentions of the founding fathers to give power back to the people by placing the larger majority of power in the hands of the state.
Landy, Marc and Sidney M. Milkis. American Government: Balancing Democracy and Rights. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2004.
Not all Americans are necessarily angry at the government, but they are certainly frustrated with it (How Americans View Government). Less public trust has led to a restless citizenry who do not trust even the people they elect, and has also led to the people seeing a moral decline in government (Ibid). These effects can be positive, however, for a lack of trust in the federal government has led Americans to seek trust in their local governments (Ibid). Distrust in government can also led to a stronger sense of patriotism in the minds of individual citizens, and thus support the principles of individualism (Vavreck). Government trust may be falling, but there still are remedies to revive that