Outcome 1 question 4 | Course Paper

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POLS Comprehensive Exam

Name: Oscar Gonzalez

Local Address: 2300 MacCorkle Eve SE, Charleston, WV 25396

Permanent Address: 4025 E Avenue T-2, Palmdale, CA 93552

Cell phone number: 818-441-9203

Email address that’s not a UC email and that you actually check on

occasion: manchester1915@gmail.com

Post-graduation employer (if any): NONE

Post-graduation graduate study plans (if any): (Please include name of the institution

where you will plan to study as well as the degree you will be pursuing: Graduate School at

UC for MBA

What do you think are the strengths of the Political Science program at UC? Really teaches

us about the government. Before coming had little information about the government and

public policy

What could be improved? I believe that the only thing that can be improved would be to

talk about how other states handle the government

There has been talks about now how the public is losing very little interest in the

government. The trust that the citizens have towards the government. There is even some citizens

that have stopped believing in their own federal government and instead depend more in their

local government. This was seen recently in the years about the citizens not trusting anything the

government talks about. There can be many reasons on why the trust in citizens have declined In

their government. The public will always have a different view towards the government and not

many would agree on the decisions that the government make. An example of that would be how

now that President Trump became president, many dislike the way he runs the country and

because of this, the trust in government has declined since they let someone like that in office.

Other than that, there are different causes on the decline of trust in the government.

Each individual in the country has the right to their own opinion. Just like supporting the

government or trusting it, citizens have the right to either support it or not. One of the key

problems that the government today face is the U.S. citizens. In the last presidential elections, the

population of voter were deeply decreased compared to the previous elections. The government

should be more concern about losing the citizens trust than not do anything at all. Some citizens

may say that the only problems that the government, well the federal government cares about is

themselves instead of the people. Two major groups that usually trust or have no trust in the

government would be democratic or republicans. With democrats, they tend to favor on what the

government says while republicans usually go against many of the decisions made. In an article

by Frank Newport, it says “Americans clearly want a government to take responsibility for

combating foreign threats, regulating unsafe products, preventing discrimination, ensuring

efficient and effective transportation, and protecting the environment” (Newport, 2019). This is

important to know because this is one of the reasons why some may lose interest in the

government. The public want the government to handle their needs. If the government cannot

take these kinds of responsibilities, then of course the trust in the citizens would decline. Many

argue that the government tends to focus more on protecting major corporations than focusing on

the people, especially those in need. Major factor is the healthcare the citizens are able to get or

even those that qualify for it. Before president Trump came in, Obama came out with a health

plan that many people were able to qualify for. Now with president Trump, he had made changes

with healthcare. Healthcare was truly a great debate among the people and the government which

there are decisions that are made that will not be supported. The opinion is clear about how some

people feel about the government and some may even think that the government has a bit too

much power. This just a few things that the people want the government to do so the trust cannot

be lost.

Trying to find the reasoning on why the decline is happening can be from any reason

actually. The confidence in the federal government and elections has been clearly shown through

the years. Around three quarters of Americans are saying that their federal government and

people between each other are losing trust. With the amount of trust that is being lost, the more

difficult it will be to try to solve this problem. In an article by Lee Rainie and Andrew Perrin, it

said “Those who think interpersonal trust has declined in the past generation offer a laundry list

of societal and political problems, including a sense that American on the whole have become

more lazy, greedy, and dishonest” (Rainie and Perrin, 2019). Some say the past decisions made

were made with no effort. There was no thinking on how this can affect the rest of the people and

just focus on themselves. Like previously said, the main focus that the government was caring

for was the big corporations and the amount of money that is being brought in. Some people

have different views because of how different society is changing. Especially in the West coast,

there are people more open for new things and some do not trust the government because they

tend to keep it how it was run for many years. The ones that also have no more trust would be

those that are less fortunate. The people in poverty instead of being helped by the government,

the government tends to go against them. This is seen in the streets of Los Angeles. There will be

streets that were full of homeless people because they had no other place to go to. Now the local

government, not federal, has come up with laws that did not allow them to stay o the streets. This

can be one of the many reasons on why the people have trust issues with the government. The

different views that people have can make it difficult for the government to come out with laws

or choices that can fulfill the citizens needs. Some may prefer different presidents and that may

be a reason on why there is little trust on someone with different views. The young adults around

the ages 18-30 are the ones whose views are different to the older generation. There is less and

less younger adults that do not pay attention on what the government does. Reason for the ones

losing most of the trust is being the young adults would be that in today’s world, many do not

care about it. Any other reason that can cause the decline would be the economic status or the

type of race.

The government should know the citizens expectations. This is the key for gaining the

governments trust. Citizens soon became very educated and because of this, the expectations

towards the government to fall through on their end is pretty high. The performance once it is

lacking and not getting the expectations the people want, then the decline in trust would

gradually begin. An article by R.J. Dalton, he mentions “These changes in expectations may

explain more of the erosion of political support than real government performance and may

surprise policy makers” (Dalton, 2005). Many of the policy makers would be surprised once they

find out that they are not exceeding in their job. The number one job the government has to do is

to take care of the citizens and make sure they exceed on what can benefit them not the major

corporations. Have trust is so imperative in everything involved because that is how you get

followers and build up amazing relationships.

The policy evaluations towards the government has been declining in the recent decades.

In an article by Virginia A. Chanley, it allows the researchers to see what can be the main causes

of the decline in trust towards the government. “The most significant contribution of the present

research lies in our findings concerning the casual dynamics of trust in government, the influence

of public concern about crime on evaluations of trust in government” (Chanley, 2000). This

shows that even in this time in our country was worried about the government not really fixing

the needs of people. All this crime that happens around the states and the government does not

do anything to make it better. There would be incidents on about how the government would

handle some crimes and nothing was done to be fixed. Many people complain about how the

prisons and jails are overpopulated and there are millions of dollars from tax payers that are

going to waste just to keep the jails and prisons running. There are many laws that the

government would come up with and the citizens may not agree with. Some may think it is not

fair but the more citizens begin to not trust the government anymore, the more it will influence

the government to change its ways.

Trust is key to the citizens in the U.S. and if nothing is done to satisfy their needs, then

that is when the trust will eventually be lost. That is what the government has been doing during

the decades. Many do not care on what the government does and when it comes to voting, the

importance is mostly in their local government rather than the federal government. The age has a

big influence on who are the ones that trust the government, but still one of the main reasons

why the citizens lose trust in the government would be not satisfying their needs and not making

decisions that are true for the citizens.

Works Cited

Chanley, V., Rudolph, T., & Rahn, W. (2000). The Origins and Consequences of Public Trust in

Government: A Time Series Analysis. The Public Opinion Quarterly, 64(3), 239-256. Retrieved

April 29, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/3078718

Dalton, R.J. (2005), “The social transformation of Trust in Government”, International Review

of Sociology, Vol. 15, No. 1, March, pp. 133-154.