Why Trust Matters : Declining Political Trust and the Demise of American Liberalism / Marc J. Hetherington.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hetherington, Marc J., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Progressivism (United States politics).

Voting--United States.

Voting.

Public opinion--United States.

Public opinion.

Political alienation--United States.

Political alienation.

Political participation--United States.

Political participation.

United States--Politics and government.

United States.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (197 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2018]

Language Note:

In English.

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Summary:

American public policy has become demonstrably more conservative since the 1960s. Neither Jimmy Carter nor Bill Clinton was much like either John F. Kennedy or Lyndon Johnson. The American public, however, has not become more conservative. Why, then, the right turn in public policy? Using both individual and aggregate level survey data, Marc Hetherington shows that the rapid decline in Americans' political trust since the 1960s is critical to explaining this puzzle. As people lost faith in the federal government, the delivery system for most progressive policies, they supported progressive ideas much less. The 9/11 attacks increased such trust as public attention focused on security, but the effect was temporary. Specifically, Hetherington shows that, as political trust declined, so too did support for redistributive programs, such as welfare and food stamps, and race-targeted programs. While the presence of race in a policy area tends to make political trust important for whites, trust affects policy preferences in other, non-race-related policy areas as well. In the mid-1990s the public was easily swayed against comprehensive health care reform because those who felt they could afford coverage worried that a large new federal bureaucracy would make things worse for them. In demonstrating a strong link between public opinion and policy outcomes, this engagingly written book represents a substantial contribution to the study of public opinion and voting behavior, policy, and American politics generally.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

List of Figures

List of Tables

Acknowledgments

CHAPTER ONE. Why Political Trust Matters

CHAPTER TWO. Political Trust and Its Evolution

CHAPTER THREE. Political Distrust, Not Conservatism

CHAPTER FOUR. The Dynamic Importance of Political Trust

CHAPTER FIVE. Political Trust and Public Support for Government Spending

CHAPTER SIX. Political Trust and the Racial Policy Preferences of Whites

CHAPTER SEVEN. Political Trust and the Demise of Health Care Reform

CHAPTER EIGHT. Political Trust and the Future of American Politics

Notes

References

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (p. [163]-170) and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Mai 2019)

ISBN:

0-691-18869-6

OCLC:

1132219368