Trust in government and civic engagement

Trust in Government

Trust in the United States Government: A Tale of Vacillation

The United States of America is a country that has been built on and perpetuated by a series of binary oppositions. The Patriots (or Rebels) and the Loyalists disagreed about the very need for a revolution and the formation of a new country in the New World, the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists disagreed about the degree and level of federal government the fledgling democracy ought to establish, and the current opposition of the Democrats and the Republicans is ostensibly built on a primary difference of opinion about the size and level of intrusion that should be characteristics of the federal government. All of these situations can be seen as emblematic of the issue of trust vs. mistrust of the federal government, and while the pairs listed here coexisted in this disagreement, there are also periods of observably greater trust alternating with periods of more extensive mistrust that can be traced throughout the progress of American history.

The early days of the country following a successful end to the Revolutionary War actually created one of the largest and most profound eras of distrust in American history, when the very loose Articles of Confederation established the only form of national government on the continent. The period leading up to the Civil War was also a period marked by a sharp mistrust of the federal government on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line, and even the relatively recent Republican domination of Congress in the 1990s can be seen as the result of growing mistrust of the federal government on the part of the American people. The effects of this mistrust have been highly varied in degree and direction, but the existence of this mistrust itself is a matter that can hardly be disputed.

The American Revolution established the schism with the British monarchy and government on no uncertain terms, but it did not establish a clear system of government or even a necessarily more trustworthy one; the Articles of Confederation conferred the vast majority of governmental power upon the states, rather than creating a small central government, precisely because there was a mistrust of such strong central power. In the decades leading uyp to the Civil War, both the North and the South feared fro what would become of their country if the representatives in the federal government were too heavily influenced by one side or the other; this mistrust was a large reason for the South's secession and the North's aggressive stance in the government. The election of 1994, which saw an overwhelming takeover of Congress by the Republican party, was seen by many as the result of growing mistrust in the growing federal government under President Clinton, with Republicans running on a platform of reduced government interventions.

Periods of trust in the government are not, perhaps, as easily identified, but they are just as numerous. Following the onset of the Depression and the election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a period of restored faith and hope in the government began and continued throughout World War II and after. Prior to that, there was a great deal of trust placed in the federal government throughout much of the first half of the nineteenth century, when continued expansion and progress made the future seem limitless and full of possibilities protected by federal investment and the physical strength of the nation's army. Most recently, the election of President Obama reflected a renewed faith and hope in the government's ability to address meaningful issues.