By William J. Cromie

Gazette Staff

When it comes to the relationship between the federal government and the people, there's bad news and worse news.

Only half of the adults in this country bothered to vote in the November elections. And one in three of them was badly informed about the differences in the positions of President Clinton and Senator Dole on key issues.

Additionally, both voters and nonvoters expressed keen distrust of government. The percentage of Americans who trust the government in Washington plunged from 76 percent in 1964 to 25 percent in 1996. Federal bureaucrats, senators, members of Congress, and politicians rank below people in advertising, corporate executives, union leaders, and even lawyers in trustworthiness.

Confidence in the press, universities, and medical doctors has also slipped dramatically since 1966. As you might expect, these negative feelings coincide with a lack of people's trust in each other. In 1968, more than half (56 percent) of individuals thought that most people can be trusted; in 1966 only one in three (35 percent) felt that way.

This gloomy news comes from collaborative surveys done by Harvard, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and The Washington Post during the past year.

"Our goals were to determine how informed voters and the public in general are about issues such as the economy and jobs, and to shed light on why Americans are so distrustful and cynical about the federal government," explained Robert Blendon, who led the Harvard effort. He holds joint appointments at the School of Public Health (SPH) and Kennedy School of Government. Working with him were Richard Morin and Mario Brossard of The Washington Post, Drew Altman and Mollyann Brodie of the Kaiser Family Foundation, and John Benson and John Yong of SPH.

Knowledge Gaps

Out of 196.5 million people of voting age, slightly less than half (49 percent) voted in November, the lowest turnout in 72 years. To make matters worse, the surveys showed that only two out of three voters knew how the candidates stood on major issues such as the federal deficit and taxes. Blendon described the other 33 percent as "confused."

For example, only about half (53 percent) knew that Congressman Newt Gingrich is Speaker of the House, and one in four couldn't name Al Gore as Vice President. Eighty percent knew that Clinton is more pro-abortion than Dole, but 10 percent thought Clinton favors stricter limits on abortion, and another 10 percent didn't know where either candidate stood.

Seven in ten voters correctly said that Clinton supported affirmative action more strongly than Dole, but three out of ten either didn't know or called Dole the stronger advocate. One out of three mistakenly believed that Clinton wanted bigger increases in defense spending.

Millions of dollars spent on campaigning, three nationally televised debates, and hours and hours of advertising failed to prevent such confusion. Why? Blendon cites lack of interest in public affairs, fueled by cynicism. "Depending on television for news, and drawing most conclusions from the opinions of family members and friends also led voters astray," he adds.

A post-voting survey determined that the most knowledgeable voters obtained campaign information from newspapers and radio news programs. Those least familiar with the issues and candidates' positions relied mainly on television.

TV coverage concentrates on heroes, zeros, scandals, and horrors, Blendon feels. When television does raise a question about political plans and issues, it usually asks for a "yes" or "no" phone response. Newspapers and radio often break up an issue or a plan into its components, allowing the public to see and comment on each part.

[Improving television's role in covering issues and informing the public was the subject of a conference hosted by the Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy in New York on Dec. 4.]

As far as knowing the state of the economy, a top issue in the presidential race, most of those surveyed prior to the election thought things were much worse than they really are. For example, 70 percent of 1,514 adults polled believed that, compared to five years ago, the federal deficit has grown larger. Actually, the budget deficit dropped from $270 billion in fiscal 1991 to $109 billion in fiscal 1996.

Forty-six percent of the nationwide sample said that inflation is higher now than five years ago. The average guess of these people put inflation at 13.5 percent. Inflation really fell from near 6 percent to 2.9 percent from 1991 to 1996.

One third of those surveyed thought that unemployment has risen in the last five years, and the average guess put the level at 20.6 percent. Unemployment reached almost 8 percent in 1992 then fell to 5.4 percent this year.

"People see news reports about hundreds, even thousands of workers being laid off by large companies, but they don't know about the many small companies that have been hiring," Blendon comments. "These new jobs are not all low-wage positions, although most of them require more schooling and technical skills than in the past."

Another survey found that 70 percent of people believe that family incomes have not kept up with the rise in living costs. But only 22 percent of 250 economists, polled at the same time, say that's true. Seventy-seven percent of the economists think that incomes are staying even (46 percent) or going up (35 percent).

The experts say that most new jobs being created today pay well; only 16 percent of the public agrees. Half of the economists think trade agreements between the U.S. and other nations helped to create jobs; 81 percent of the public disagrees and 54 percent believe they have cost jobs.

Distrust and Anger

Beliefs about jobs and the economy, whether correct or not, constitute a main reason Americans distrust the federal government. Eight in ten people cite waste, inefficiency, and spending money on the wrong things as reasons for their negative feelings. Foreign aid, welfare, and immigration were singled out. Most people say too many jobs are lost to immigrants and too much is spent on foreign aid and welfare.

Other reasons for loss of confidence include beliefs that special interests have too much power and politicians lack integrity. More than six of every ten Americans agree on both counts.

Not everybody distrusts equally. Blacks and Hispanics express higher than average trust in the federal government to redress their grievances about discrimination. The poorest and youngest adults (18-29 years) also are more trusting than other Americans.

On the other hand, Republicans, who typically argue against big government, are less trusting. The least trusting include regular listeners to Rush Limbaugh's ultra-conservative radio talk program.

Six in ten people, including most Republicans, conservatives, and Limbaugh listeners, trust their state governments more than the feds. Only Jewish-Americans trust the federal more than their state government.

The deeper trust in state governments stems from a tighter focus on regional or cultural preferences. People see the state as more responsive to the needs of individuals like them, solving problems more quickly, and being less likely to spend money where constituents don't want it spent.

Americans prefer states to have responsibility for public education, reducing crime, providing job training, and running welfare programs. They would leave protecting the environment and improving health care to the federal government.

These results, however, do not constitute a strong endorsement of state governments. Only one in three persons would trust the states to do the right thing all or most of the time.

Paralleling the loss of trust in government is a decline in people's trust of each other. Almost half (48 percent) of those surveyed say that others would take advantage of them if given a chance, and would look after themselves instead of trying to be helpful.

American cynicism and anger is feverish enough to result in the establishment of a National Commission on Civic Renewal to find out why. Retiring Senator Sam Nunn and former Education Secretary William Bennett will lead the commission, which includes Harvard's Henry Louis Gates Jr., chair of Afro-American studies, and Mary Ann Glendon, Learned Hand Professor of Law.

The overwhelmingly negative attitudes about government "will place substantial limits on the ability of those in public service to act on major problems facing the nation," Blendon says. "Without a major increase in public trust, government leaders in the next century will find it very difficult to obtain support for difficult national decisions, like restructuring Medicare and social security, changing the tax system, or enacting health care reform."