Why Trust Matters

Declining Political Trust and the Demise of American Liberalism

Marc J. Hetherington

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN:
  9780691128702
  9780691117768
• eBook ISBN:
  9780691188690
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: American Government
• Index: Politics & International Relations

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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• 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