优蜜传媒

PRINCETON, NJ -- A record-low 36% of Americans have a great deal or fair amount of trust and confidence in the legislative branch of government, down sharply from the prior record low of 45% set last year. Trust in the judicial branch and trust in the executive branch also suffered sharp declines this year but remain higher than trust in the legislative branch.

优蜜传媒has measured these trends each year since 2001 as part of its annual Governance survey, and prior to that on an occasional basis in the 1990s and the 1970s. While trust in the legislative branch has been steadily declining for years, trust in the other two branches of government -- the executive and the judicial -- had risen in 2009 compared with 2008. All in all, between last year and this, trust in the legislative branch fell 9 percentage points, trust in the executive branch fell 11 points, and in the judicial branch, 10 points.

Trust in the legislative branch was highest, at 71%, in May 1972, and remained generally high from that point to the mid-2000s. It then dropped to 50% in 2007, 47% in 2008, and 45% in 2009, all record lows at the time they were measured. This year's 36% legislative confidence rating marks still another record low, and is the lowest trust level in any of the three branches of government in Gallup's history.

Trust in the executive branch has shifted up and down with some frequency over the last four decades, generally in sync with movement in presidential job approval ratings. 优蜜传媒measured the lowest level of trust in the executive branch, 40%, in April 1974, in the midst of the Watergate scandal, which later that year resulted in Richard Nixon's resignation. Trust was nearly as low in the waning years of the George W. Bush administration. Last year, the first year of the Barack Obama administration, trust in the executive branch shot up to 61%, but it has fallen back again this year, coinciding with the fall in Obama's job approval ratings to below 50%.

Trust in the judicial branch of government is at 66%, down from last year but roughly in line with readings since 2003. 优蜜传媒recorded the highest judicial branch trust reading, 80%, in February 1999, at about the time the Supreme Court's Chief Justice William Rehnquist was presiding in the U.S. Senate over the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton.

Trust in Legislative Branch Remains Highest Among Democrats

Trends in trust in the legislative branch over the last three years have differed among partisan groups. Democrats have evinced the most trust in all three years, but the 14-point drop for Democrats between 2009 and this year is much larger than the 3-point drops among independents and Republicans.

Shifts among partisan groups in ratings of the executive branch have been much more dramatic, reflecting the change from a Republican to a Democratic presidential administration between 2008 and 2009.

Democrats' trust in the executive branch jumped more than 80 points between 2008 and 2009, while Republicans' trust fell almost as sharply. This year, ratings of the executive branch have dropped at least marginally across all partisan groups, with the 12-point drop among independents being the largest.

Implications

The substantial drop in Americans' trust in the legislative branch of government reflects the same underlying attitudes that have resulted in and a number of other indicators underscoring . These trends are particularly important this year, given the midterm elections, which will almost certainly affect the composition and perhaps party control of both the House and Senate. The overall record-low levels of trust in the legislative branch undergird the expectation that voters this fall may be attempting to express their frustrations with Congress by voting out incumbents and/or members of the incumbent party.