In August 1973, the Subcommittee on Intergovernmental Relations of the U.S. Senate hired Louis Harris and Associates, the public opinion research firm, to survey popular attitudes toward all levels of government. The survey was to gauge how responsive Americans felt their governmental bodies were to public standards and expectations. Secondarily the survey sought to learn how public officials, elected or appointed, felt they were coping with the needs of society. The results of this investigation of the national mood were published on December 3 under the title, Confidence and Concern: Citizens View American Government. The Foreward to the report notes that the survey was conducted during September when much of the public's attention was riveted on the Watergate scandal, which had enmeshed the administration of Richard Nixon in allegations of a criminal cover-up. Therefore answers to questions were bound to reflect this overriding national concern. Exclusive of tables and charts, this selection reprints the first chapter of the report, Crisis of Confidence.

Source: Confidence and Concern: Citizens View American Government, A Survey of Public Attitudes by the Subcommittee on Intergovernmental Relations of the Committee on Government Operations, United States Senate, Part I; Washington, D.C., 1973.

In the fall of 1973, for the first time since the 1968 assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, a majority of the American people (by 53-37 percent) felt "there is something deeply wrong in America" today, that these are no ordinary times of crisis.

The new, profound concern for the country permeates all segments of the public. No group has been unmoved.

Majorities of lower middle-income (55 percent) and upper middle-income (52 percent) Americans, of skilled laborers (54 percent) and white-collar workers (55 percent), of rural citizens (58 percent), residents of small towns (52 percent) and city dwellers (55 percent) and of grade-school (67 percent) and high-school (56 percent) graduates reflect this grave unease. Additionally, more people in the South (55 percent) than in the East (49 percent) feel "there is something deeply wrong" and those 50 years of age and over (62 percent) feel more alarm than those under 30 (44 percent). And while 57 percent of Democrats nationwide are deeply concerned, 50 percent of all Republicans share these sentiments.

Much of this shift in attitude originates in disillusionment about government. For example, when asked to explain their concern, one quarter of those sampled--the largest segment--volunteered the belief that "government leaders are corrupt and immoral." As a tobacco farmer in eastern North Carolina put it, "The whole moral character of the country is going downhill or we wouldn't have had a Watergate crisis. People in the top of government are power hungry and they will do almost anything to get and keep their power. They want nothing but raw power. And that's just downright corrupting."

For the first time in over a decade of opinion sampling, a new majority of disaffected Americans has been found in this country. On a scale of alienation, powerlessness, and cynicism used by the Harris firm since 1966, an average of 55 percent on a four-question scale expressed disenchantment, compared with no more than 29 percent who felt the same way back in 1966.

While blacks have been most alienated (an average 68 percent nationwide), many other groups now express their discontents: residents of big cities (62 percent), people 50 and over (54 percent), residents of the South (54 percent), skilled labor (59 percent), and rural residents (59 percent). In the past year, the most sizable shifts upward were recorded among rural people (up from 45 to 59 percent) and among people who live in the West (up from 45 to 59 percent).

Nor were the four usual statements which made up the scale of alienation the only signs of public disenchantment:
-- The proposition that "most people with power try to take advantage of people like yourself" was accepted by 33 percent of the adult public in 1971, rose to 38 percent by mid-1972, but climbed to 55 percent by the fall of 1973.

--The claim that "the tax laws are written to help the rich, not the average man" was believed by 74 percent of the public in 1972 and by precisely the same 74 percent in 1973.

In addition, new sources of alienation and concern were recorded in responses to new questions designed for this study:
--Three in every four people, 75 percent, felt that "wire-tapping and spying under the excuse of national security is a serious threat to people's privacy."

Almost as many, 74 percent, believed that "special interests get more from the government than the people do."

A majority of 60 percent agreed with the proposition that "most elective officials are in politics for all they personally can get out of it for themselves."

A substantial 59 percent felt "the federal government in Washington has been trying to dictate too much what people locally can and cannot do."

WHAT SIGNIFICANT PROBLEMS FACE AMERICA?

In the last eighteen months, America's preoccupations have changed dramatically. From a high level of concern with the Vietnam War in May 1972, public attention has shifted to alarm at corruption in government. That issue now ranks second only to the traditional worry over economic problems and inflation.

In general, the responses of state and local officials paralleled those of the public in reading national concerns, if not their causes. Leaders gave integrity in government first place in their mentions (58 percent), followed closely by inflation (55 percent), and then the energy shortage (21 percent), crime (19 percent), pollution (15 percent), welfare reform (11 percent), and taxes (10 percent).

THE QUALITY OF LIFE

As a final measure of levels of confidence, the survey put two broad questions to leaders and officials, asking them to assess the "quality of life" in America now in comparison to ten years ago and to indicate the positive or negative impact of all levels of government on that quality.

Once again, sharp differences between the public and the leadership emerged. By 45-35 percent, the public tends to believe that the quality of life in the country has deteriorated. However, by a thumping 84-6 percent, state leaders believe the quality of life has improved and local leaders share this optimism by 55-24 percent. The leaders believe that the standard of living in the country has increased, that people have much more free time to enjoy themselves, and that housing has improved. The public, citing worries that range from money to morality, disputes the leaders' cheerful outlook.

The public, for example, is much more disturbed than the officials about what inflation has done to them. As a young medical engineer in Del Ray, Florida, put it: "I feel I have a permanent hand in my pocket, picking my money out every couple of hours. That isn't comfortable." A retired man in Sarasota added: "I thought I had worked all my life to retire comfortably. Now inflation is out of control, and I feel poor all the time."

Still another public complaint about the quality of life is that crime has not been checked. As a 44-year-old processing worker in Texarkana, Texas, put it: "We get a lot of talk about law and order and nobody seems to do much or care much if we actually have it. That makes the quality of life worse, as far as I'm concerned." Others talked about drug abuse, Watergate, loss of confidence in government, erosion of moral standards, shortages of food and gasoline, unrest, and high taxes.