FC: Americans' post-911 trust in government is back to normal

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36238-2002May30.html
Trust in Government Declines
Post-9/11 Jump in Americans' Confidence in Washington Is Fading
By Claudia Deane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 31, 2002; Page A29
The post-Sept. 11 romance between the public and the federal government is 
fading fast, according to a survey released yesterday by the Brookings 
Institution's Center for Public Service.
While polls conducted in the weeks after Sept. 11 found that 
long-languishing trust in government had increased dramatically, a survey 
conducted this month suggests that confidence in government is headed back 
down.
Forty percent of Americans say they trust the federal government to do 
what's right at least most of the time. That's down 17 percentage points 
from a survey conducted for the center in October, but it is higher than 
the 29 percent recorded in July.
Government favorableness ratings followed the same pattern. The percentage 
of people viewing the government favorably rose from 50 percent last summer 
to 78 percent in the fall, only to drop 18 percentage points since then. [...]


http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0502/053002b1.htm
Public support for federal workers falls to pre-Sept. 11 level
By Brian Friel
Americans support federal workers and trust the government less today than 
they did immediately after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a new survey shows.
The survey, issued Thursday by the Brookings Institution's Center for 
Public Service, found that support for federal workers had fallen to its 
pre-Sept. 11 level. The percentage of Americans who said they had a 
favorable opinion of federal workers fell from 76 percent in October 2001 
to 69 percent this month, the same percentage that reported a favorable 
opinion in July 2001.
The percentage of Americans who said they trust the federal government to 
do what is right just about always or most of the time fell from 57 percent 
in October 2001 to 40 percent this month. In July 2001, 29 percent of 
survey respondents said they had high levels of trust in the government.




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