Congressional Polarization and Political Trust

In: The Forum: a journal of applied research in contemporary politics, Band 13, Heft 3

Abstract

AbstractAmericans have become less trusting of their federal government since the late 1950s. Most accounts of trust in government are based upon the performance of the economy. I argue that two additional factors are essential for understanding the sharp fall in trust in government in recent years: the level of partisan polarization in the Congress (as reflected in the ideological distance between the parties on roll calls) and the inability of Congress to enact legislation (gridlock).