The following is from Gallup News.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- No institution’s confidence score improved significantly in the past year
- Confidence in four institutions now at record lows
- Widest party gaps seen for the presidency, public schools
Americans’ faith in major societal institutions hasn’t improved over the past year following a slump in public confidence in 2022.
Last year, Gallup recorded significant declines in public confidence in 11 of the 16 institutions it tracks annually, with the presidency and Supreme Court suffering the most.
The share of Americans expressing a great deal or fair amount of confidence in these fell 15 and 11 percentage points, respectively.
Neither score recovered appreciably in the latest poll, with confidence in the court now at 27% and the presidency at 26%.
However, the survey was conducted June 1-22, 2023, before the Supreme Court issued decisions affecting affirmative action in education, college loan forgiveness and LGBTQ+ Americans’ access to creative services.
Any or all of these decisions could have altered the court’s image as well as that of President Joe Biden, who spoke out against the rulings.
Public confidence in each of the other 14 institutions remains near last year’s relatively low level, with none of the scores worsening or improving meaningfully.
Overall, the new poll finds small business enjoying the most public trust, with 65% of Americans having a great deal or fair amount of confidence in it. A majority, 60%, also have high confidence in the military, while less than half (43%) feel this way about the next highest-rated institution, the police.
The medical system and the church or organized religion round out the top five annually rated institutions, albeit with meager 34% and 32% confidence ratings, respectively.
Another six — the U.S. Supreme Court, banks, public schools, the presidency, large technology companies and organized labor — earn between 25% and 27% confidence.
The five worst-rated institutions — newspapers, the criminal justice system, television news, big business and Congress — stir confidence in less than 20% of Americans, with Congress, at 8%, the only one in single digits. (Continued…)
Read complete article and see full polling results here.
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