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Small Business And Military Generate Most Confidence In Americans

Small Business And Military Generate Most Confidence In Americans

GALLUP NEWS SERVICE

PRINCETON, NJ - Americans have more confidence in small business and the military than in any of 13 other institutions evaluated in a recent Gallup poll. The military's confidence rating, however, has dropped since last year, perhaps reflecting the high levels of negative publicity surrounding the sexual activities of various military officers and enlisted personnel. Small business was evaluated for the first time in several decades this year, and its high confidence rating stands in sharp contrast to the much lower confidence expressed in big business.

The public also gives high confidence ratings to the police and organized religion. Additionally, Americans remain much more confident in the Supreme Court and the Presidency than they do in Congress. The latter sits at the bottom of the confidence list alongside the criminal justice system and organized labor.

Some Changes Evident over Time
Gallup has been asking the public to rate its confidence in major American institutions since the early 1970s. Not all institutions included in the current rating have been tracked throughout this full period of time, but some changes are clearly evident from an analysis of those for which there are trends over times:

  • Confidence in many of the nation's institutions has been dropping from previously higher levels. In particular, confidence in the church or organized religion, banks, public schools, organized labor, and Congress is down from the 1970s and 1980s.
  • Although the military remains at the top of the confidence list, its numbers are down from previous ratings in this decade, and are, in fact, at their lowest since 1988. The military received its all-time high confidence rating in a poll conducted immediately after the end of the Gulf War in March of 1991, at which time 85% of the public expressed high confidence in the nation's armed forces. Confidence in the military generally remained between 64% and 69% during five measurement periods since that time. The 60% rating this year is below last year's 66% confidence rating, perhaps as a result of the lingering effects of the highly visible adultery and sexual harassment charges associated with members of the military over the past year
  • The nation's banks underwent a significant dip in confidence in the late 1980s and early 1990s, coincident with the savings and loan crisis. Banks have experienced a slight comeback, with their high confidence rating rising from 35% to 41%. Still, banks get nowhere near the high level of confidence given them by the public in 1979, when they received a 60% confidence vote, or even in the 1980s, when they routinely obtained confidence levels around 50%
  • Organized religion consistently received confidence ratings in the 60% range through the 1970s and most of the 1980s, before falling into the 50% range throughout the decade of the 1980s. Fifty-six percent of Americans have a high confidence in organized religion in the most recent poll.


Small Business Earns Much More Confidence than Big Business
Until this year, Gallup asked Americans about "big" business, which has consistently been one of the lower rated institutions tested. In the most recent poll, "small" business was reintroduced to the list of the institutions rated. The result: Small business jumps to the top of the list as the institution with the highest confidence rating of any of the 15 tested, receiving "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence vote from 63% of those polled. This compares with 28% who give big business "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence, suggesting an enormous divide in the perceptions of business based on its size. (These results may also reflect a generalized positive reaction Americans have to "small" entities, and a conversely negative reaction to things labeled as "big".)

Of some interest, given the current UPS strike, is the fact that big business has a slightly higher confidence rating than organized labor, although both of these institutions are among the lowest rated of any of those currently tested.

Congress, the Supreme Court, the Presidency and the Press
The form of government which is closest to the public itself - the Congress - receives a lower level of confidence than the Supreme Court or the Presidency. Congress has always received relatively low ratings, but has yet to recover from a more significant drop in confidence which began in 1990. The Supreme Court enjoyed a period of more robust confidence in the mid-Reagan years, but fell some through the early 1990s, only to see something of a resurgence in the current poll.

There is not a great deal of confidence expressed by Americans in the Fourth Estate. Newspapers and television news are essentially tied at a 34-35% confidence rating. Despite their traditional role as watchdogs and their function as the conscience and voice of the people, newspapers have not enjoyed a high vote of confidence from the American public over the last 20-25 years. The current 35% rating, although slightly higher than the ratings newspapers have received previously in the 1990s, is roughly consistent with their positioning through the 1980s.

The Criminal Justice System: the Largest Vote of No Confidence
The institution in American society with the dubious distinction of earning the highest vote of "no confidence" is the criminal justice system, in which 40% of Americans say they have "very little" or "no confidence". Only 27% of Americans have a high degree of confidence in the criminal justice process in this country.

METHODOLOGY
The results are based on telephone interviews with a randomly selected national sample of 1,004 adults, 18 years and older, conducted July 25-27, 1997. For results based on samples of this size, one can say with 95 percent confidence that the error attributable to sampling and other random effects could be plus or minus 4 percentage points. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.

Now I am going to read you a list of institutions in American society. Please tell me how much confidence you, yourself, have in each one -- a great deal, quite a lot, some, or very little? First, ... Next, ... (RANDOM ORDER)

Confidence in Institutions

July 25-27 1997

(ranked by great deal/quite a lot combined)

Great deal Quite a lot

Some

Very little None (vol.) No opinion
Small business 32% 31 29 5 1 2
The military 30% 30 27 10 2 1
The police 27% 32 30 10 1 *
Church/organized religion 35% 21 28 12 2 2
U.S.Supreme Court 25% 25 32 14 2 2
The Presidency 23% 26 31 17 2 1
Banks 17% 24 42 15 1 1
Public schools 18% 22 39 19 1 1
The medical system 15% 23 38 21 2 1
Newspapers 15% 20 43 21 1 *
Television news 14% 20 42 20 3 1
Big business 11% 17 43 24 3 2
Organized labor 11% 12 43 27 2 5
Congress 9% 13 50 24 3 1
The Criminal justice system 8% 11 40 35 5 1
* Less than 0.5%


Confidence in Institutions - Trend

1973-1997

(Percent saying "great deal" or "quite a lot")

Oct Mar
1997 1996 1995 1994 1993 1991 1991 1990 1989 1988 1987
Small business 63% NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
Military 60% 66 64 64 68 69 85 68 63 58 61
The police 59% 60 58 54 52 NA NA NA NA NA NA
Organized religion 56% 57 57 54 53 56 59 56 52 59 61
Supreme Court 50% 45 44 42 44 39 48 47 46 56 52
The Presidency 49% 39 45 38 43 50 72 NA NA NA NA
Banks 41% 44 43 35 37 30 32 36 42 49 51
Public schools 40% 38 40 34 39 35 44 45 43 49 50
Medical system 38% 42 41 36 34 NA NA NA NA NA NA
Newspapers 35% 32 30 29 31 32 32 39 NA 36 31
Television news 34% 36 33 35 46 NA NA NA NA NA NA
Big business 28% 24 21 26 22 22 26 25 NA 25 NA
Organized labor 23% 25 26 26 26 22 25 27 NA 26 26
Congress 22% 20 21 18 18 18 30 24 32 35 NA
Criminal justice system 19% 19 20 15 17 NA NA NA NA NA NA


Confidence in Institutions - Trend (cont.)

1986 1985 1984* 1983 1981 1979 1977 1975 1973
Small business NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
Military 63% 61% 58% 53% 50% 54% 57% 58% NA
Police NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
Organized religion 57 66 64 62 64 65 64 68 66
Supreme Court 54 56 51 42 46 45 46 49 44
The Presidency NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
Banks 49 51 51 51 46 60 NA NA NA
Public schools 49 48 47 39 42 53 54 NA 58
The medical system NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
Newspapers 37 35 34 38 35 51 NA NA 39
Television news NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
Big business 28 31 29 28 20 32 33 34 26
Organized labor 29 28 30 26 28 36 39 38 30
Congress 41 39 29 28 29 34 40 40 42
Criminal justice system NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
*Gallup/Newsweek



Gallup https://news.gallup.com/poll/4360/small-business-military-generate-most-confidence-americans.aspx
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