Several Gallup polls have asked "If the leaders of our nation followed the views of the public more closely, do you think the nation would be better off, or worse off than it is today?"
Oct 1975 66% 15% 9% 9%
Apr 1996 80% 11% 10%
Jan 1999 81% 10% 10%
Sept 2001 75% 18% 4% 3%
Sept 2005 73% 22% 3% 2%
I guess that's to be expected, although the apparent increase in the percent saying "worse" since the 1990s is interesting. Several of the polls have also asked a slightly different question (to different people--each went to a randomly selected half of the sample): "If the leaders of our nation followed the views of public opinion polls more closely, do you think the nation would be better off, or worse off than it is today?"
Better Worse Same DK
Apr 1996 74% 14% 13%
Sept 2001 63% 27% 6% 4%
Sept 2005 61% 33% 3% 3%
Support for following the public and following the polls is closer than I expected--my impression was that "the polls" usually has a negative connotation (following the polls is something that other politicians do). As with following public opinion, the number thinking it would make the nation worse off seems to increase after 1996.
Interesting... do you think this fits a general trend of distrusting most institutions?
ReplyDeleteNot really, because it's "the public," not the leaders of some institution. If anything, I'd think that less faith in institutions would tend to go with more faith in the public. Maybe the more polarized political and media has made more people aware that a lot of "the public" disagrees with them.
ReplyDelete