GOVERNMENT TRUST: Survey by U-M/MSU Shows Citizens Growing More Wary
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Thomas Ivacko, who heads U-M survey, announces results.
We're from Washington and we're here to help you.
That entre' doesn't make it with most folks today, including local leaders, a new survey shows.
The survey results were released Tuesday by the University of Michigan and Michigan State University.
The one bright spot is at the local level. Indications that 67 percent of local leaders place a lot of trust in others at their level, could facilitate cooperative efforts between municipalities.
The University of Michigan Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy has partnered with the State of the State Survey (SOSS), a statewide public opinion survey conducted by Michigan State University's Institute for Public Policy and Social Research (IPPSR) to provide a better understanding of how Michigan's citizens and their local leaders compare to each other, in terms of trust in government. This unique research partnership provides a rare comparative look at a key aspect of democratic governance in one of the nation's most populous states.
"As pressure grows to expand service-sharing among Michigan's local governments, these high levels of inter-local trust may provide a strong foundation to build on," said Thomas Ivacko, who oversees the survey at the Ford School's Center for Local, State and Urban Policy.
Michigan's local government leaders have very little trust in the federal government. Overall, just 6 percent trust the federal government in Washington, D.C. to "do what is right" nearly always or most of the time, while 59 percent trust it seldom or almost never.
Local leaders' trust in Washington has declined from the low levels previously found in 2009, when 10 percent trusted the federal government nearly always or most of the time and 47 percent trusted it seldom or almost never.
This trust is strongly correlated with officials' partisan identification. As of 2013, Democratic local leaders (12 percent) express more trust in the federal government than do Independents (7 percent) or Republicans (4 percent). Democrats (43 percent) are also less likely than Republicans (65 percent) or Independents (63 percent) to say they trust Washington seldom or almost never.
Local leaders have somewhat higher trust in Michigan's state government than in the federal government, though these levels are also very low. Overall, 19 percent of Michigan's local leaders trust the state government in Lansing nearly always or most of the time, while 28 percent trust it seldom or almost never.
Since 2009, trust in Lansing has increased among Republican and Independent local leaders but has decreased among Democratic local leaders.
Local leaders of all parties express particularly high levels of trust in other local governments across Michigan, and these high levels have remained consistent since 2009.
In 2013, overall, 67 percent of local leaders trust other local governments nearly always or most of the time, while just 4 percent trust them seldom or almost never.
When compared to the state's citizens, Michigan's local leaders are significantly less trusting of the federal government, about equally trusting of the state government, and significantly more trusting of local government in general.
In terms of trust in the state government, overall, 19 percent of both Michigan's local leaders and its citizens trust the state government nearly always or most of the time. However, while Republican local leaders (25 percent) and Republican citizens (23 percent) express similar levels of trust in Lansing, Democratic (6 percent) and Independent local leaders (13 percent) are less trusting of the state government than are the state's Democratic and Independent citizens (19 percent and 22 percent, respectively).
The Michigan Public Policy Survey (MPPS) has established a growing body of research on trust in the public sector. The MPPS first asked local government leaders about their trust in government (federal, state, and local) in the spring of 2009, and then expanded research on trust in a new direction by looking at local officials' trust in their citizens as responsible participants in local policymaking in the fall of 2012.
Now, the spring 2013 wave of the MPPS repeats the questions from spring 2009, asking local officials about their trust in various levels of government, and thus allowing a comparison of change over time.
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