JOB VACANCY KEDAI BOBA DAN Es COklat

Gallup polling shows the majority of Americans say the federal government should have the responsibility for a number of societal functions, including protection from foreign threats, protection from unsafe products, preventing discrimination, maintaining the nation's transportation systems, protecting the environment and making sure Americans have adequate healthcare. Pew Research recently found over half of Americans agreeing that the federal government should play a "major role" in addressing the 12 different functions measured. And, Americans have generally been positive about the massive government outlays put into place over the years since the beginning of the pandemic.

Americans are thus negative about the government in general, while simultaneously recognizing that the government performs positive functions. This suggests, in turn, that leaders and elected officials need to be cautious in taking extreme positions either heavily critical of everything the federal government does or unquestioningly focusing on expanding its role. To reflect public opinion, leaders need to recognize that the public sees the federal government as having deep flaws, while also perceiving it as deeply necessary to keep the nation functioning.

Americans' Conflicted Views of Government Power

This conflictual nature of Americans' relationship to their government is clearly evident in data measuring perceptions of government power.

My colleague Jeff Jones recently reviewed data showing that Americans in recent years and that the government is doing too many things that should be left to business and industry.

At the same time, Americans are positive about a number of functions the government takes on and are positive about the job that a not-insignificant number of government agencies and departments are doing.

Gallup data show, for example, that o the U.S. Postal Service, NASA and the CIA (and the U.S. military), while being much less positive about other agencies and departments. A couple of years ago, Pew Research used different question wording that revealed a more positive picture; Americans in that research had favorable ratings of all but one agency or department tested. And a 2021 survey conducted for the Partnership for Public Service found majorities of Americans had positive opinions of many government agencies, even though in the same poll, the favorable rating of the "federal government" per se was well below majority level.

Gallup in 2019 found that a majority of Americans said government should have more responsibility for seven out of 11 government functions listed. (Less than half said the government should take on more responsibility for upholding moral standards, reducing income differences, or protecting major U.S. corporations, but in no instance did a majority say the government should have less responsibility.) That same year, Gallup gave Americans a five-point scale measuring views of the appropriate role of government. The results showed Americans tilt more toward "tak[ing] active steps in every area it can to try and improve to lives of its citizens" than to "do[ing] only those things necessary to provide the most basic government functions."