Popular in Political Science

American Politics

Keeping the Republic

Boston College Marc Landy

British Politics

Entrepreneurial thinking: the politics and practice of policy impact

University of Sheffield Matthew Flinders

Canadian Politics

Parties and Elections: An End to Canadian Exceptionalism?

St. Francis Xavier University James Bickerton

Asian Politics

The Politics of Knowledge in Development

University of Delhi Madhulika Banerjee

American Politics

The Opening Dilemma

Cornell University Richard Bensel

Political Economy

Wait and See?

University of Liverpool Mariaelisa Epifanio

Political Science

The Colonialist Roots of Democratic Decay

University of California Los Angeles Richard D. Anderson, Jr

Fifty years of declining confidence and increasing polarization in trust

View more insights in Social Sciences - Political Science - American Politics

View more figures from University of California Berkeley

View the page of Henry Brady

Read the Study

Over the past 50 years, faith in most American political and non-political institutions has plummeted, except for the military and science. Henry Brady discusses.

Image courtesy of interviewee. March 15, 2024

Generating Workspace

Export as PDF

The speaker reflects on their 12 years of experience as an academic administrator, particularly addressing the worrying decline in trust in various institutions, including higher education, government, and non-political institutions. They conducted extensive research, analyzing over 165,000 survey responses spanning 50 years, revealing a significant decrease in public confidence across institutions.

Key findings indicate strong polarization in trust levels between different political groups, with Democrats and Republicans having contrasting views on institutions like the military, policing, higher education, and science. This video video polarization poses challenges for collective action and problem-solving in society, as starkly different perceptions hinder consensus on issues.

The speaker identifies various contributors to declining trust, including increasing inequality, demographic shifts toward a more diverse society, and intensified scrutiny of institutions. They express concern that this environment, combined with the inability or unwillingness to reach compromise on identity issues (like abortion), makes it challenging for society to progress and reform institutions effectively.

The conclusion emphasizes the critical need for trusted institutions to effectively tackle societal issues, warning that ongoing distrust and polarization could impede the ability to address problems such as police brutality and public health crises.

Language:

Export as PDF

Export as PDF
Here are some articles and topics that relate to the themes presented in your video about the decline of trust in institutions, political polarization, and the implications for societal progress:

1. **The Erosion of Trust in Institutions**:
- "Trust in Government: A Comparative Perspective" – An analysis of how trust levels in government have shifted over time and what factors contribute to this decline globally.
- "The Rise of Distrust: Understanding the Roots of Institutional Skepticism" – This article explores the historical convideo of declining trust in institutions and its implications for democracy.

2. **Polarization and Its Effects on Society**:
- "The Deepening Divide: How Political Polarization Affects Public Trust" – A study focusing on how polarization impacts citizens' trust in institutions such as the judiciary, law enforcement, and education systems.
- "Navigating Polarization: Strategies for Effective Dialogue in a Divided Society" – Discusses methods to foster conversation and understanding across polarized groups to rebuild trust.

3. **Inequality and Institutional Trust**:
- "Inequality and Distrust: How Economic Disparity Influences Confidence in Institutions" – An exploration of how rising inequality leads to increased skepticism and distrust in public institutions.
- "Demographic Changes and Institutional Trust: The Impact of Diversity on Public Confidence" – Examines how changes in demographics affect perceptions of trustworthiness in various institutions.

4. **Impact of Social Media on Institutional Trust**:
- "Social Media and the Crisis of Trust: A New Era of Misinformation and Polarization" – Investigating the role of social media in shaping public perceptions of trust and creating echo chambers.
- "From Connections to Divisions: How Online Communities Influence Public Trust" – Analyzes how online discourse affects the public's faith in traditional institutions.

5. **Crisis and the Need for Trusted Institutions**:
- "Building Resilient Institutions: The Role of Trust in Crisis Management" – Discusses the importance of institutional trust in effectively addressing crises like public health emergencies and civil unrest.
- "Reforming Institutions: Strategies for Restoring Public Confidence" – Outlines approaches to make institutions more transparent and accountable to regain public trust.

6. **The Role of Education in Trust Dynamics**:
- "Trust in Higher Education: Challenges and Opportunities" – Explores the reasons behind declining trust in educational institutions and potential strategies for rebuilding it.
- "Education as a Tool for Social Cohesion: Bridging the Trust Gap" – Discusses how educational initiatives can promote understanding and trust among diverse populations.

These articles and topics align closely with the themes of your initial video, providing insights and further exploration into the complex issue of trust in institutions and the implications of polarization in society.

X-TIMESTAMP-MAP:LOCAL=00:00:00.000,MPEGTS=900000

00:00.205 --> 00:02.325
I was an academic administrator for 12 years.

00:02.485 --> 00:04.605
I was Dean of the Goldman School, which is behind me here.

00:04.945 --> 00:06.485
And, I was very concerned

00:06.485 --> 00:08.925
with the decline in trust in higher education.

00:09.345 --> 00:11.485
And so I went and collected some data on that.

00:11.545 --> 00:12.965
But as I collected the data,

00:13.045 --> 00:14.445
I got data on other institutions,

00:14.745 --> 00:17.245
and I was shocked to find out there'd been decline in

00:17.695 --> 00:20.045
confidence in essentially every institution.

00:20.045 --> 00:22.885
But the military, I knew that was true for government.

00:22.985 --> 00:24.965
Uh, that's been a longstanding truth.

00:25.385 --> 00:27.365
Uh, and so that was not a surprise,

00:27.625 --> 00:29.085
but the fact that it's occurred in

00:29.085 --> 00:31.885
what I call non-political institutions, some of which,

00:31.885 --> 00:33.605
like the police exist within government,

00:33.605 --> 00:36.885
but are not meant to be political in the sense of,

00:37.395 --> 00:38.765
politicized,

00:38.875 --> 00:41.205
that we still had decline in faith in those.

00:41.545 --> 00:43.005
And then the second thing I noticed was

00:43.005 --> 00:45.245
that there was polarization in that faith.

00:45.305 --> 00:47.885
So that Democrats had one view of some institutions

00:47.905 --> 00:50.125
and Republicans had a decidedly different view.

00:50.345 --> 00:52.205
And those two things decline in trust

00:52.465 --> 00:55.045
and polarization made me worry.

00:55.185 --> 00:56.765
Uh, and the reason is this

00:57.365 --> 01:00.125
institutions are the way we get stuff done in society.

01:00.355 --> 01:01.685
They're really hard to build.

01:01.705 --> 01:04.445
And as an academic administrator, I learned that,

01:04.515 --> 01:06.325
it's really hard to build one that's good.

01:06.915 --> 01:10.285
Goldman school is a good one, and well regarded,

01:10.465 --> 01:11.685
and we're very lucky for that.

01:12.065 --> 01:13.645
Um, but it's hard to build them.

01:13.865 --> 01:14.885
And the notion

01:14.885 --> 01:17.405
that somehow there'd been such a decline in trust in them,

01:17.585 --> 01:20.805
and polarization in trust worried me in

01:20.805 --> 01:24.885
that we get things done in society through our institutions,

01:25.185 --> 01:28.445
and if we don't trust them, how are we gonna get things done

01:28.865 --> 01:31.445
and especially get things done as a society together.

01:31.585 --> 01:33.965
And we'll talk more about that as we go along,

01:33.965 --> 01:36.525
because that's really, I think, a big issue.

01:36.675 --> 01:40.325
What we have is, we put together my research assistant

01:40.425 --> 01:43.725
and co-author eventually, Brad Kent,

01:43.725 --> 01:44.805
Thomas, Brad Kent.

01:44.985 --> 01:48.645
Uh, we put together a data set that included Gallup polls,

01:48.645 --> 01:51.205
Harris polls, and I think called the General Social Survey.

01:51.785 --> 01:56.085
Um, and we ended up with over 165,000 respondents,

01:56.105 --> 01:59.245
asking questions about confidence or trust in Go Government

01:59.265 --> 02:02.645
and other institutions over 50 years, all the way back

02:02.645 --> 02:04.005
to the early 1970s.

02:04.305 --> 02:06.605
And so we have a very, very long data set,

02:06.605 --> 02:07.965
and we can look at trends over time.

02:08.585 --> 02:11.725
The four political institutions are the ones you'd expect,

02:11.985 --> 02:14.405
the executive, the president,

02:14.405 --> 02:16.525
the executive branch versus the president,

02:16.885 --> 02:19.605
somewhat distinct, Congress and the Supreme Court.

02:20.145 --> 02:21.445
Uh, and there we found

02:21.635 --> 02:22.805
that there's been tremendous

02:22.805 --> 02:24.205
decline in trust in all of them.

02:24.395 --> 02:26.605
Most precipitously for, Congress,

02:26.865 --> 02:28.885
but more recently for the Supreme Court.

02:28.905 --> 02:30.445
And in fact, even more recent data

02:30.445 --> 02:34.165
that we've just getting into, now shows that with Dobbs,

02:34.165 --> 02:35.365
the decision about abortion,

02:35.555 --> 02:37.805
that there's been really quite a decline in

02:37.805 --> 02:39.125
trust in the Supreme Court.

02:39.635 --> 02:41.925
Then there's 16 nonpolitical institutions.

02:42.195 --> 02:45.045
There's four institutions related to the economy,

02:45.285 --> 02:50.125
business and labor, the sort of two major pieces of our

02:50.765 --> 02:52.605
business corporation sector,

02:52.745 --> 02:54.605
and then banks and Wall Street.

02:54.825 --> 02:56.365
Uh, and there again, you find

02:56.365 --> 02:58.845
that trust has declined, quite a

02:58.845 --> 03:01.725
Bit over time, and especially for Wall Street and banks.

03:02.425 --> 03:05.245
And then there's seven institutions related to knowledge

03:05.245 --> 03:06.525
and information production.

03:06.825 --> 03:10.805
Um, these are things like higher education, science,

03:11.805 --> 03:14.985
the press television and TV news.

03:15.685 --> 03:18.505
Um, these institutions provide us with the knowledge

03:18.505 --> 03:20.145
and information we have in our society.

03:20.525 --> 03:23.625
Uh, and there again, you've seen, especially for the press,

03:24.005 --> 03:26.225
for journalism, for television news,

03:26.905 --> 03:29.305
precipitous declines in trust of them.

03:29.655 --> 03:31.785
Science is still pretty trusted,

03:31.885 --> 03:33.465
but it's starting to show declines.

03:33.525 --> 03:36.425
And more recently, more precipitous declines.

03:36.605 --> 03:39.665
So that's worrisome. And higher education was doing fine

03:39.675 --> 03:41.105
until maybe 10, 20 years ago.

03:41.125 --> 03:42.905
And then it started to show,

03:42.905 --> 03:44.625
significant declines in trust.

03:44.925 --> 03:47.825
So all of the information producing institutions

03:47.885 --> 03:49.065
are seeing declines.

03:49.565 --> 03:51.025
And then there's three related to

03:51.025 --> 03:54.665
what we call norm enforcement, the kinds of institutions

03:54.865 --> 03:56.945
that say what our norms and our morals

03:56.945 --> 03:58.505
and our ethics should be in a society.

03:58.765 --> 04:01.865
And that's religion, police, and the military.

04:02.245 --> 04:04.565
Uh, and there for police

04:05.345 --> 04:08.805
and, for, religion, we've seen declines in trust.

04:09.135 --> 04:10.565
Don't see it for the military.

04:10.905 --> 04:12.765
Uh, if you go way back to the 1960s

04:12.825 --> 04:15.085
and dig up some old questions, you find out

04:15.085 --> 04:17.845
that it turns out there was a lack of trust in the military.

04:17.845 --> 04:20.575
Then there was Vietnam that really brought it

04:20.575 --> 04:23.415
to a very low E and it's really increased since then.

04:23.715 --> 04:26.455
Um, for some reason, the military has escaped this decline

04:26.455 --> 04:28.775
in trust that has affected every other institution.

04:29.035 --> 04:31.535
And then finally, two, related to professional services.

04:32.115 --> 04:35.175
Uh, law and health, the medical sector.

04:36.055 --> 04:37.985
This covers just about everything in society.

04:38.055 --> 04:40.025
There's some that are left out, arts

04:40.045 --> 04:43.785
and entertainment, public utilities, philanthropy,

04:44.135 --> 04:45.265
agriculture,

04:45.265 --> 04:47.305
but I would say that the ones that are in there

04:47.305 --> 04:50.585
that we have questions about pretty much cover the gamut of

04:50.705 --> 04:53.625
what you'd want to cover for studying a modern society.

04:54.695 --> 04:58.675
If you don't trust an institution, then it does,

04:58.735 --> 05:02.235
it lacks some of the power that it needs, the legitimacy

05:02.235 --> 05:04.595
that it needs so that it can actually undertake changes.

05:04.895 --> 05:06.795
So, for example, if you don't trust the police,

05:07.785 --> 05:09.035
then it's gonna be hard

05:09.035 --> 05:11.115
to have an organization in your local area

05:11.505 --> 05:13.035
that provides safety to people

05:13.035 --> 05:14.755
because you don't trust the institution

05:14.765 --> 05:15.835
which is given that job.

05:16.375 --> 05:19.995
If you don't trust science, it's gonna be hard to believe

05:20.455 --> 05:23.515
and to accept the findings such as climate change

05:23.515 --> 05:24.715
that science has come up with.

05:24.975 --> 05:28.115
And so it'll be hard to actually do something about

05:28.615 --> 05:29.715
the change in climate.

05:30.135 --> 05:33.035
Um, and similarly with every other institution, medicine,

05:33.255 --> 05:35.875
if you don't trust medicine, it's gonna be hard when an

05:36.515 --> 05:38.355
epidemic comes along, to listen

05:38.495 --> 05:40.155
to the medical professionals

05:40.375 --> 05:41.795
and to do what they say you should do,

05:41.825 --> 05:43.075
such as get vaccinations.

05:43.385 --> 05:45.315
When I first, started looking with these questions,

05:45.395 --> 05:47.835
I was very worried about that, whether they were just fluff.

05:48.215 --> 05:49.755
Um, turns out they're not fluff.

05:50.055 --> 05:51.955
Um, you find out that they go up

05:51.955 --> 05:54.675
and down, in ways that really are quite predictable

05:54.895 --> 05:56.835
and that are based upon events that occur.

05:57.030 --> 05:59.925
And the also the characteristics of the people responding.

06:00.145 --> 06:03.125
So in terms of events, the military is the one

06:03.125 --> 06:04.445
where it's most clear.

06:04.905 --> 06:07.525
Um, so when we had the successful,

06:07.985 --> 06:10.245
war in the Mideast in 1991

06:10.245 --> 06:14.205
or so, the first mid East War, first ball, a Gulf War,

06:14.465 --> 06:16.445
that we did quite well at,

06:16.445 --> 06:18.805
we went in very quickly, things went well.

06:19.185 --> 06:21.925
Uh, you see trust in the military just goes way up.

06:22.185 --> 06:25.165
Uh, you see the same thing after nine 11 rally round.

06:25.165 --> 06:27.165
The flag effect, just what you'd expect.

06:27.795 --> 06:29.285
Then you see trust going down

06:29.315 --> 06:32.485
with the Iraq War in Afghanistan, wars becoming mired.

06:32.785 --> 06:35.525
And then finally, when you get the, a surge in Iraq,

06:35.525 --> 06:38.125
which was successful, you see trust in the military,

06:38.485 --> 06:39.765
military going up, and then

06:39.765 --> 06:40.925
you see that with every other item.

06:41.185 --> 06:43.045
Uh, banks trust in them go down

06:43.075 --> 06:44.325
when there are bank failures.

06:44.385 --> 06:47.005
So the late 1980s, there were a series of savings

06:47.025 --> 06:48.085
and loans, bank failures,

06:48.535 --> 06:50.965
trust in banks went down, wall Street.

06:51.225 --> 06:53.445
You see when you have the 2000,

06:53.545 --> 06:57.605
or so, small recession,

06:57.605 --> 07:01.445
then the.com recession, that trust in Wall Street goes down.

07:01.785 --> 07:03.965
Uh, same thing in 2000 7, 8 9,

07:03.965 --> 07:06.445
when we had the Great Recession trust in banks.

07:06.685 --> 07:08.045
'cause remember there were a lot of bank failures there

07:08.505 --> 07:10.165
and trust in Wall Street goes down.

07:10.585 --> 07:13.845
And finally you find that as unemployment goes down,

07:14.015 --> 07:15.245
trust in labor goes up.

07:15.985 --> 07:18.605
As GDP goes up, as we get more prosperous,

07:18.895 --> 07:20.125
trust in business goes up.

07:20.305 --> 07:22.285
So for all those reasons, you have

07:22.285 --> 07:23.605
to believe there's something real here

07:23.605 --> 07:24.725
because the questions seem

07:24.725 --> 07:27.325
to be capturing changes in ways that make sense.

07:27.945 --> 07:31.125
Uh, just from a a priority perspective, this is the thing

07:31.125 --> 07:32.485
that actually has me more worried even

07:32.595 --> 07:34.325
than distrust In institutions.

07:34.705 --> 07:37.685
Uh, Americans have historically been distrustful

07:37.685 --> 07:38.805
of governmental institutions.

07:38.825 --> 07:41.805
We were founded as a nation that was distrustful of a king.

07:42.185 --> 07:44.125
Uh, and so it's not surprising that we're distrustful

07:44.125 --> 07:47.045
of government, and it arguably is a good thing,

07:47.045 --> 07:49.605
that we're worried about authoritarianism

07:49.825 --> 07:52.525
and, about governments, which get too powerful.

07:52.825 --> 07:55.165
Um, and even institutions, you can imagine, well,

07:55.165 --> 07:56.485
that's maybe not a bad thing

07:56.485 --> 08:00.165
because in fact, maybe institutions aren't trustworthy.

08:00.585 --> 08:01.965
And if they're not trustworthy,

08:02.275 --> 08:03.845
then our trust should go down in them.

08:04.025 --> 08:05.925
And given the scandals, for example,

08:05.945 --> 08:08.285
in the Catholic Church scandals in some

08:08.285 --> 08:11.205
of the Protestant churches and other things, you can imagine

08:11.205 --> 08:14.205
that trust and religion should go down, and on and on.

08:14.205 --> 08:16.685
We, we can give many examples of where there's been events

08:17.075 --> 08:19.125
that have maybe made us less trustworthy.

08:19.555 --> 08:21.565
Also, the society's becoming more educated.

08:21.865 --> 08:23.925
And there's a lot of evidence that suggests that one

08:23.925 --> 08:27.685
of the things we do at higher education institutions is we

08:27.685 --> 08:29.285
make students question.

08:29.505 --> 08:30.765
That's what we're supposed to do.

08:30.985 --> 08:32.605
And when we make them question things,

08:32.635 --> 08:34.325
they question institutions as well.

08:34.585 --> 08:36.485
So all of that sort of makes sense,

08:36.865 --> 08:39.205
and at least is okay, maybe,

08:39.405 --> 08:41.205
although you wonder if trust gets solo,

08:41.235 --> 08:43.365
that it could be really a problem for society,

08:43.435 --> 08:44.765
like I indicated earlier.

08:45.465 --> 08:47.885
But what really worries me is polarization and trust.

08:48.235 --> 08:51.245
Suppose half the society thinks an institution's doing just

08:51.245 --> 08:53.545
great, police are doing great.

08:53.685 --> 08:56.205
No problems say Republicans by and large,

08:56.905 --> 09:00.165
and the other half of the society, Democrats say, no, no,

09:00.165 --> 09:02.045
police are really doing a bad job.

09:02.145 --> 09:03.485
We have to rethink the police

09:03.905 --> 09:06.125
and do policing in an entirely new way.

09:07.305 --> 09:09.635
Well, it's gonna be very hard to do anything

09:09.635 --> 09:13.355
to solve the problems of the police if you've got such

09:14.305 --> 09:17.755
differences of opinion about whether there's even a problem,

09:18.065 --> 09:20.435
much less what the solution to that problem should be.

09:20.775 --> 09:22.635
So we've got a lot of polarization

09:22.635 --> 09:24.875
where we find there are some institutions that are trusted

09:24.935 --> 09:27.715
by Democrats and some institutions that are trusted

09:28.175 --> 09:30.795
by Republicans more than by Democrats.

09:30.935 --> 09:34.435
So Republicans trust big business. That's not a surprise.

09:34.645 --> 09:37.955
Banks and Wall Street, and Democrats trust unions.

09:38.185 --> 09:41.835
Well, that's a historic artifact of the New Deal Coalition.

09:42.055 --> 09:43.315
And going back before that,

09:43.795 --> 09:45.795
Republicans basically became the party of business,

09:46.015 --> 09:48.035
at least in the 1920s, if not before.

09:48.415 --> 09:49.795
So that's not a surprise.

09:51.205 --> 09:52.305
But we also find

09:52.455 --> 09:55.665
that Republicans trust the norm enforcing institutions,

09:56.585 --> 09:58.505
religion, the military, and police,

09:59.815 --> 10:01.275
and Democrats distrust them.

10:02.315 --> 10:06.535
On the other hand, Republicans distrust higher education,

10:06.725 --> 10:08.695
science, journalism, TV news,

10:09.235 --> 10:11.415
and Democrats trust those institutions.

10:11.845 --> 10:15.735
Science, for a long while was trusted more

10:15.755 --> 10:17.255
by Republicans than Democrats,

10:17.715 --> 10:20.215
but now is distrusted more

10:20.795 --> 10:22.895
by Republicans than by Democrats.

10:23.235 --> 10:25.895
And in fact, there's a growing gap between Republicans

10:25.895 --> 10:28.415
and Democrats with respect to trust for science.

10:29.115 --> 10:31.775
So, and then by the way, in Intel recently, health

10:31.775 --> 10:33.695
and law were sort of equally trusted.

10:34.115 --> 10:36.575
Uh, but now especially with Covid,

10:36.745 --> 10:39.215
healthcare system is less trusted

10:39.595 --> 10:41.695
by Republicans than it used to be.

10:41.875 --> 10:44.295
And therefore, there's a growing gap, polar,

10:44.495 --> 10:46.015
a polarization there as well.

10:46.635 --> 10:49.295
Um, so what worries me is if you have polarization,

10:49.675 --> 10:51.375
how are you gonna solve problems?

10:51.915 --> 10:54.135
And how are you gonna get these institutions reformed in

10:54.135 --> 10:57.255
ways they need to be reformed, when in fact, Republicans

10:57.255 --> 10:59.895
and Democrats can't agree as to whether,

10:59.895 --> 11:02.575
even if there's a problem, much less what the solution is,

11:03.225 --> 11:06.055
those who study institutions say there's four ways

11:06.195 --> 11:07.295
you can get legitimacy.

11:07.595 --> 11:11.295
Um, one is it can be bestowed upon you by an, an authority.

11:11.595 --> 11:14.175
So for example, when a corporation gets a corporation

11:14.175 --> 11:16.375
charter that's bestowing on that corporation,

11:16.405 --> 11:18.455
some legitimacy says they can do

11:18.695 --> 11:19.775
business within the society.

11:20.155 --> 11:22.455
Um, the trouble with that is

11:22.455 --> 11:25.175
that increasingly government's not very trusted.

11:25.635 --> 11:28.115
Um, the second way is you can do things

11:28.115 --> 11:29.355
that are culturally appropriate.

11:29.455 --> 11:31.475
So for example, the mafia doesn't do things

11:31.625 --> 11:34.275
that are culturally appropriate, so it's not much trusted.

11:34.655 --> 11:36.795
Uh, but if you do things culturally appropriate,

11:36.825 --> 11:39.115
like run your hospital in the way people expect you

11:39.115 --> 11:41.795
to run your higher education institution the way people

11:41.795 --> 11:44.995
think you should and so forth, then you're going

11:44.995 --> 11:47.675
to get some legitimacy and ultimately trust.

11:48.655 --> 11:50.355
The third thing you can do is make sure

11:50.355 --> 11:52.835
that not only do you run it in a way that makes

11:52.835 --> 11:55.805
Sense to the society, and so you're trustworthy,

11:56.105 --> 12:00.485
but you also have a process, a a, a set of norms within

12:00.485 --> 12:02.285
that institution that makes sure

12:02.395 --> 12:04.805
that it does it in an ethical and moral fashion.

12:05.385 --> 12:07.285
Uh, so you have problems.

12:07.305 --> 12:08.605
If Bernie Madoff comes along

12:08.985 --> 12:11.165
and takes, advantage of a lot of people

12:11.465 --> 12:12.725
and a lot of people lose their money,

12:13.075 --> 12:15.525
then the financial system isn't much trusted.

12:15.945 --> 12:17.725
You have trouble. If you're the Catholic church

12:17.905 --> 12:20.165
and you have pedophile priests,

12:20.305 --> 12:22.925
people aren't gonna trust an institution that allows

12:22.925 --> 12:24.885
that kind of behavior to go on.

12:25.225 --> 12:28.445
Uh, so that's, that's the third way, ethical

12:28.545 --> 12:31.605
and moral operation of your institution.

12:31.825 --> 12:34.125
And then the fourth way is you can just perform well.

12:34.855 --> 12:36.355
You know, if you do such a good job,

12:36.705 --> 12:38.155
produce such good products,

12:38.295 --> 12:40.755
people actually sometimes excuse you for all sorts

12:40.755 --> 12:41.835
of other bad behaviors.

12:42.175 --> 12:45.115
So big business often gets away with, things like

12:45.795 --> 12:47.795
actually sourcing, material

12:47.975 --> 12:50.195
or, products from abroad

12:50.195 --> 12:51.835
that maybe even use child labor

12:52.175 --> 12:54.315
or that involve corruption in terms

12:54.335 --> 12:55.835
of bribes and things like that.

12:56.135 --> 12:57.795
Uh, but they perform so well.

12:57.795 --> 12:59.235
They provide such a good product.

12:59.345 --> 13:01.795
It's such a low price that people excuse them.

13:02.135 --> 13:04.835
Now, there's not a limitless possibility for that.

13:05.175 --> 13:07.555
At some point it may catch up with you, as we've seen

13:07.555 --> 13:08.635
with various corporations,

13:08.935 --> 13:11.315
but those are the four ways you get legitimacy.

13:11.445 --> 13:12.715
Government gives it to you.

13:13.095 --> 13:14.675
Uh, culturally, you do the right thing

13:15.185 --> 13:16.315
ethically and morally.

13:16.315 --> 13:19.845
You do the right thing, but finally you just perform so well

13:19.995 --> 13:21.605
that people say you're great.

13:22.105 --> 13:23.685
Uh, the trouble is, is that each

13:23.685 --> 13:25.365
of those have difficulties these days.

13:25.985 --> 13:29.165
Um, as I said, government's not much trusted.

13:29.305 --> 13:33.895
And so it's hard to get much, legitimacy

13:33.995 --> 13:36.135
by the fact that government has said you're

13:36.135 --> 13:37.175
our police department.

13:37.555 --> 13:40.095
Um, it's hard sometimes to do things

13:40.255 --> 13:41.735
'cause culturally there's been changes in

13:41.735 --> 13:43.015
notions of how things should be done.

13:43.595 --> 13:45.695
Police departments are suffering from this

13:45.695 --> 13:47.615
because there's been a cultural change in

13:47.755 --> 13:49.455
how people think policing should be done.

13:50.075 --> 13:52.615
Um, moral and ethically, that's a problem

13:52.615 --> 13:55.855
because so many institutions have suffered, partly

13:55.855 --> 13:57.375
because of the post-Watergate press,

13:57.625 --> 14:00.055
which has really gone into these institutions

14:00.055 --> 14:01.655
and looked for corruption.

14:01.955 --> 14:05.535
Uh, probably a good thing, trying to keep them,

14:05.865 --> 14:07.055
doing things correctly,

14:07.195 --> 14:08.255
but nevertheless meant

14:08.365 --> 14:10.935
that those institutions have suffered, ethical

14:10.935 --> 14:11.975
and moral lapses.

14:12.235 --> 14:14.135
And then finally, performance,

14:14.435 --> 14:16.295
is sometimes very hard to do.

14:16.565 --> 14:18.895
It's hard to perform well, and it's not even clear.

14:18.895 --> 14:22.135
That always works. The Biden administration, for example,

14:22.795 --> 14:25.775
has performed very well by most political scientists,

14:25.795 --> 14:26.815
at least standards.

14:26.845 --> 14:28.455
They've passed a lot of legislation.

14:28.755 --> 14:31.255
The economy is in very good shape by any standard.

14:31.595 --> 14:36.215
Uh, and yet there Biden himself is not got much confidence,

14:36.235 --> 14:37.255
of the American public.

14:37.755 --> 14:39.935
Uh, so there seems to be a problem even

14:40.215 --> 14:41.415
with performance these days.

14:41.955 --> 14:44.135
Uh, and that brings us to polarization.

14:44.435 --> 14:45.695
And that part of the problem seems

14:45.695 --> 14:47.815
to be the tremendous polarization we have.

14:48.215 --> 14:50.855
A bunch of things seem to be happening. Um, one is

14:50.855 --> 14:54.165
That there's all this increased scrutiny of institutions

14:54.165 --> 14:55.765
that goes beyond what we used to have

14:55.765 --> 14:59.605
before the 1970s, when institutions often got a pass.

14:59.955 --> 15:01.725
Certainly the Catholic church, for example,

15:01.725 --> 15:04.285
obviously got a pass for very bad behavior,

15:04.285 --> 15:05.805
which had been going on for a long time.

15:06.065 --> 15:07.685
And that's true of many other institutions.

15:08.025 --> 15:11.245
So first of all, the, the press no longer allows them

15:11.245 --> 15:12.605
to get away with some

15:12.605 --> 15:14.885
of the bad behaviors they used to get away with.

15:15.145 --> 15:17.605
So that may explain some of the decline in trust.

15:18.145 --> 15:20.485
Um, second of all, there seemed

15:20.485 --> 15:23.565
to be forces in American politics, events,

15:23.785 --> 15:26.005
things happening, that cause people

15:26.005 --> 15:28.605
to have less trust in general of one another

15:29.405 --> 15:30.425
and of institutions.

15:30.725 --> 15:33.265
And the two big things are inequality has increased.

15:33.845 --> 15:37.945
Um, in the 1970s, the top 1%

15:38.165 --> 15:40.745
of the wealth distribution had 25% of the wealth.

15:40.965 --> 15:43.105
That's a lot. But they now have 40%.

15:43.525 --> 15:46.145
Um, they used to have 10% of the income,

15:46.405 --> 15:48.065
now they got 20% of the income.

15:48.525 --> 15:50.105
Uh, so Americans look at this

15:50.365 --> 15:53.065
and they say, these institutions are ripping us off.

15:53.565 --> 15:55.505
And so inequality is one reason.

15:55.525 --> 15:57.905
It seems to me, we haven't proven that link,

15:57.905 --> 15:58.945
haven't done the research,

15:59.125 --> 16:00.745
but it seems very likely that it's important.

16:01.925 --> 16:04.265
The second big trend has been the increase in

16:04.265 --> 16:05.345
diversity in America.

16:05.885 --> 16:08.945
And, that is linked with immigration as well

16:08.945 --> 16:10.825
as just natural increase of,

16:10.935 --> 16:13.025
more diverse populations in the United States.

16:13.405 --> 16:15.785
So in 1970,

16:16.125 --> 16:18.865
we had 83% non-Hispanic white.

16:19.255 --> 16:21.825
That is to say the country was pretty homogeneously

16:22.585 --> 16:24.585
non-Hispanic white people.

16:25.495 --> 16:28.845
Today it's 58% non-Hispanic white

16:29.315 --> 16:33.165
with almost 20% Hispanic, 12% African American,

16:33.585 --> 16:35.765
6% Asian American, 5% other.

16:35.995 --> 16:37.485
It's a much more diverse nation.

16:38.545 --> 16:40.485
And there is research that seems to show

16:40.875 --> 16:42.725
that trust is tribal.

16:44.295 --> 16:48.755
If your tribe, is not that much represented

16:48.815 --> 16:52.515
or you feel it's in decline, you worry that the other tribes

16:53.175 --> 16:55.955
are going to maybe take advantage of you

16:55.975 --> 16:57.275
or do things you don't want them to do

16:57.275 --> 16:58.715
with the society in which you live.

16:59.455 --> 17:02.875
And that kind of distrust, might be part

17:02.875 --> 17:04.195
of the roots of what we're seeing.

17:04.695 --> 17:06.835
Uh, and it's disturbing,

17:06.975 --> 17:09.195
as it's based upon a presumption that people

17:09.215 --> 17:11.475
who don't look like you are somehow untrustworthy.

17:11.775 --> 17:13.875
But there certainly seems to be evidence that

17:13.875 --> 17:15.395
that's a mechanism that's going on.

17:15.895 --> 17:17.675
And then there's finally the whole issue

17:18.095 --> 17:19.795
of polarization of trust.

17:20.295 --> 17:21.635
Um, that's a separate thing

17:21.635 --> 17:23.315
because the, the forces I've talked about

17:23.315 --> 17:25.755
so far would affect everybody and everything.

17:26.255 --> 17:27.555
Um, the ethical

17:27.555 --> 17:32.195
and moral scandals, the, change in inequality

17:32.255 --> 17:34.355
and the change in, diversity

17:34.705 --> 17:36.795
that would affect trust across the board.

17:37.615 --> 17:39.585
The polarization is something different.

17:39.765 --> 17:41.945
Why do republicans like some institutions

17:42.165 --> 17:43.905
and Democrats, other institutions?

17:45.275 --> 17:47.115
I think here probably the reason is

17:47.265 --> 17:50.605
that we've had a change in our politics from a politics

17:50.605 --> 17:52.045
that focused on economics.

17:52.625 --> 17:55.365
The New Deal cleavage it, it used to be called,

17:55.545 --> 17:58.605
and it was about business versus labor, basically.

17:58.945 --> 18:02.325
Um, now we have another dimension of politics.

18:02.705 --> 18:05.965
Um, and that dimension has to do with,

18:05.965 --> 18:08.685
issues like abortion, prayer in the schools,

18:09.345 --> 18:11.085
gay rights and so forth.

18:11.085 --> 18:12.725
These, these are identity issues,

18:13.265 --> 18:17.925
and these identity issues are hard to deal with in that.

18:17.925 --> 18:20.205
Whereas with economic issues, you can split the difference.

18:20.955 --> 18:23.525
Okay, you get two bucks, I get two bucks.

18:23.905 --> 18:25.085
That's, that's, that's fair.

18:25.585 --> 18:27.605
Um, with abortion, you can't do that.

18:28.315 --> 18:29.975
And we've seen that recently with Dobbs.

18:30.495 --> 18:35.425
Actually, the road decision did in fact split things up into

18:35.425 --> 18:37.065
three trimesters and tried to find

18:37.295 --> 18:39.585
what many people felt was a terrible legal decision.

18:40.325 --> 18:43.105
But it was pragmatically sort of a sensible way to go.

18:43.605 --> 18:44.985
It split the difference.

18:45.375 --> 18:48.305
Well, that's been rejected by the Supreme Court now.

18:48.645 --> 18:51.465
And increasingly we see groups that are unwilling

18:51.805 --> 18:52.945
to split the difference.

18:53.325 --> 18:54.985
And that's both on the left and the right.

18:55.285 --> 18:57.145
The basic issue with immigration.

18:57.205 --> 18:58.825
Now, we've seen how people are just

18:58.825 --> 19:00.065
unwilling to split the difference.

19:00.195 --> 19:01.865
Compromise is just not possible.

19:02.285 --> 19:05.265
And as a result, I think these issues have led

19:05.265 --> 19:06.825
to polarization, partly

19:06.985 --> 19:08.705
'cause the institutions, for example,

19:09.045 --> 19:12.145
the Republicans Trust are on one side of these issues.

19:12.485 --> 19:15.505
And the institutions that Democrats trust are on the,

19:15.605 --> 19:17.745
are seen to be on the other side of these issues.

19:17.965 --> 19:21.145
And that, I think has caused the polarization that we see.

19:21.485 --> 19:23.825
My biggest concern is America's losing its

19:23.825 --> 19:25.185
ability to get things done.

19:25.885 --> 19:30.555
Um, we saw that recently, in the Congress,

19:30.695 --> 19:32.035
with respect to immigration.

19:32.495 --> 19:34.595
Uh, and in fact this bizarre situation

19:34.595 --> 19:38.155
where performative politics, the impeachment

19:38.615 --> 19:42.235
of the Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro,

19:42.355 --> 19:44.635
Mayorkas, took precedent.

19:45.105 --> 19:47.315
Even though the impeachment was gonna go nowhere,

19:47.545 --> 19:50.715
it's not gonna be, agreed to by the Senate,

19:50.725 --> 19:52.315
which is run by the Democrats.

19:52.655 --> 19:54.875
Um, it's actually not even clear

19:54.875 --> 19:58.155
that it's based upon any real issues that are impeachable.

19:58.175 --> 20:01.635
And in fact, Republicans have themselves said, no, it's not.

20:01.635 --> 20:03.475
And that's one reason why the attempt

20:03.495 --> 20:05.315
to impeach Mayor Orcas actually failed,

20:05.415 --> 20:08.315
at least on the first attempt as of this moment.

20:08.815 --> 20:12.515
Um, but instead, an attempt to really solve the problem,

20:13.625 --> 20:16.905
a bill, a piece of legislation also failed.

20:17.445 --> 20:20.625
And it failed. In fact, as soon as it came out, as soon

20:20.625 --> 20:24.105
as it was, offered to the House of Representatives,

20:24.135 --> 20:26.465
basically people rejected it probably

20:26.465 --> 20:28.065
before many of them had even read it.

20:28.605 --> 20:31.825
And so, a lack of willingness to solve problems.

20:32.005 --> 20:34.545
Now that's the Congress, and that's the government.

20:34.545 --> 20:36.585
That's not these non-political institutions.

20:37.445 --> 20:38.665
But I think the same sort

20:38.665 --> 20:42.185
of problem is seeping into those nonpolitical institutions.

20:42.695 --> 20:46.625
I've mentioned some police medicine, science,

20:47.555 --> 20:48.595
religion and so forth.

20:49.135 --> 20:51.835
Um, I think that's really worrisome.

20:51.855 --> 20:55.115
If those institutions can't solve our societal problems,

20:56.225 --> 20:58.115
then we're gonna continue to have problems.

20:58.525 --> 20:59.555
We're not gonna solve them,

21:00.135 --> 21:01.515
and we're not gonna be able

21:01.515 --> 21:03.435
to move forward in ways that we need to.

21:03.975 --> 21:07.195
Um, and one of the reasons why I'm especially worried about

21:07.195 --> 21:10.475
this is that it turns out that

21:11.825 --> 21:13.605
you even find the following to be true.

21:13.665 --> 21:15.405
We did a survey, my, my co-author

21:15.405 --> 21:18.885
and I in 2019, of a random sample of Americans.

21:20.055 --> 21:22.115
We asked them, would you want your kin

21:22.135 --> 21:26.515
or your friends to be involved with a journalist?

21:26.575 --> 21:27.915
So to marry a journalist,

21:27.935 --> 21:29.595
to have friends who was a journalist?

21:30.145 --> 21:33.915
Well, republicans said they didn't want their canner friends

21:34.515 --> 21:37.115
Republicans said they didn't want their canner friends

21:38.035 --> 21:39.375
to be involved with a journalist

21:39.795 --> 21:41.175
or somebody in higher education.

21:42.375 --> 21:44.815
Democrats said they really didn't want their kind

21:44.815 --> 21:46.455
or friends to be, have close connections

21:46.645 --> 21:48.935
with those in police, the military

21:49.355 --> 21:50.735
or religious institutions.

21:51.485 --> 21:53.095
Well, that's very worrisome

21:53.125 --> 21:56.735
because again, we see that not only is there polarization,

21:56.835 --> 21:59.575
but it's leading to actual, at least professions,

22:00.235 --> 22:04.575
if not actual actions, where people say, I don't want my son

22:04.575 --> 22:06.455
or daughter to marry an ex.

22:06.915 --> 22:08.535
Uh, and that's worrisome.

22:09.035 --> 22:11.655
Uh, we want institutions that have people

22:11.875 --> 22:13.295
of all sorts in them so

22:13.295 --> 22:14.495
that we have different perspectives

22:14.495 --> 22:15.975
within those institutions.

22:16.275 --> 22:19.375
Um, and in fact, Republicans are even more worried about

22:19.375 --> 22:22.775
their can or friends becoming involved with a journalist

22:23.325 --> 22:25.855
than with an atheist or a gay person.

22:26.655 --> 22:29.515
That's pretty stunning given what we know about Republicans.

22:30.135 --> 22:32.835
So as a result, it's not clear

22:32.855 --> 22:35.835
how we're gonna solve problems when we have institutions

22:36.265 --> 22:40.675
that are so split, that are so divided

22:41.645 --> 22:43.185
and therefore not trusted,

22:44.165 --> 22:46.225
and perhaps ultimately incapable

22:46.565 --> 22:50.385
of solving problems like epidemics, like problems

22:50.385 --> 22:52.185
of police brutality,

22:52.245 --> 22:54.305
and many other problems that the society faces.

00:00 - I was an academic administrator for 12 years. I was Dean of the Goldman School, which is behind me here. And, I was very concerned with the decline in trust in higher education. And so I went and collected some data on that. But as I collected the data,

00:13 - I got data on other institutions, and I was shocked to find out there'd been decline in confidence in essentially every institution. But the military, I knew that was true for government. that's been a longstanding truth. and so that was not a surprise, but the fact that it's occurred in what I call non-political institutions, some of which, like the police exist within government, but are not meant to be political in the sense of,

00:37 - politicized, that we still had decline in faith in those. And then the second thing I noticed was that there was polarization in that faith. So that Democrats had one view of some institutions and Republicans had a decidedly different view. And those two things decline in trust and polarization made me worry. and the reason is this institutions are the way we get stuff done in society.

01:00 - They're really hard to build. And as an academic administrator, I learned that, it's really hard to build one that's good. Goldman school is a good one, and well regarded, and we're very lucky for that. but it's hard to build them. And the notion that somehow there'd been such a decline in trust in them, and polarization in trust worried me in that we get things done in society through our institutions,

01:25 - and if we don't trust them, how are we gonna get things done and especially get things done as a society together. And we'll talk more about that as we go along, because that's really, I think, a big issue. What we have is, we put together my research assistant and co-author eventually, Brad Kent, Thomas, Brad Kent. we put together a data set that included Gallup polls, Harris polls, and I think called the General Social Survey. and we ended up with over 165,000 respondents,

01:56 - asking questions about confidence or trust in Go Government and other institutions over 50 years, all the way back to the early 1970s. And so we have a very, very long data set, and we can look at trends over time. The four political institutions are the ones you'd expect, the executive, the president, the executive branch versus the president, somewhat distinct, Congress and the Supreme Court. and there we found

02:21 - that there's been tremendous decline in trust in all of them. Most precipitously for, Congress, but more recently for the Supreme Court. And in fact, even more recent data that we've just getting into, now shows that with Dobbs, the decision about abortion, that there's been really quite a decline in trust in the Supreme Court. Then there's 16 nonpolitical institutions.

02:42 - There's four institutions related to the economy, business and labor, the sort of two major pieces of our business corporation sector, and then banks and Wall Street. and there again, you find that trust has declined, quite a Bit over time, and especially for Wall Street and banks. And then there's seven institutions related to knowledge and information production. these are things like higher education, science,

03:11 - the press television and TV news. these institutions provide us with the knowledge and information we have in our society. and there again, you've seen, especially for the press, for journalism, for television news, precipitous declines in trust of them. Science is still pretty trusted, but it's starting to show declines. And more recently, more precipitous declines. So that's worrisome. And higher education was doing fine

03:39 - until maybe 10, 20 years ago. And then it started to show, significant declines in trust. So all of the information producing institutions are seeing declines. And then there's three related to what we call norm enforcement, the kinds of institutions that say what our norms and our morals and our ethics should be in a society. And that's religion, police, and the military.

04:02 - and there for police and, for, religion, we've seen declines in trust. Don't see it for the military. if you go way back to the 1960s and dig up some old questions, you find out that it turns out there was a lack of trust in the military. Then there was Vietnam that really brought it to a very low E and it's really increased since then. for some reason, the military has escaped this decline in trust that has affected every other institution.

04:29 - And then finally, two, related to professional services. law and health, the medical sector. This covers just about everything in society. There's some that are left out, arts and entertainment, public utilities, philanthropy, agriculture, but I would say that the ones that are in there that we have questions about pretty much cover the gamut of what you'd want to cover for studying a modern society. If you don't trust an institution, then it does,

04:58 - it lacks some of the power that it needs, the legitimacy that it needs so that it can actually undertake changes. So, for example, if you don't trust the police, then it's gonna be hard to have an organization in your local area that provides safety to people because you don't trust the institution which is given that job. If you don't trust science, it's gonna be hard to believe and to accept the findings such as climate change

05:23 - that science has come up with. And so it'll be hard to actually do something about the change in climate. and similarly with every other institution, medicine, if you don't trust medicine, it's gonna be hard when an epidemic comes along, to listen to the medical professionals and to do what they say you should do, such as get vaccinations. When I first, started looking with these questions,

05:45 - I was very worried about that, whether they were just fluff. turns out they're not fluff. you find out that they go up and down, in ways that really are quite predictable and that are based upon events that occur. And the also the characteristics of the people responding. So in terms of events, the military is the one where it's most clear. so when we had the successful, war in the Mideast in 1991

06:10 - or so, the first mid East War, first ball, a Gulf War, that we did quite well at, we went in very quickly, things went well. you see trust in the military just goes way up. you see the same thing after nine 11 rally round. The flag effect, just what you'd expect. Then you see trust going down with the Iraq War in Afghanistan, wars becoming mired. And then finally, when you get the, a surge in Iraq, which was successful, you see trust in the military,

06:38 - military going up, and then you see that with every other item. banks trust in them go down when there are bank failures. So the late 1980s, there were a series of savings and loans, bank failures, trust in banks went down, wall Street. You see when you have the 2000, or so, small recession, then the.com recession, that trust in Wall Street goes down.

07:01 - same thing in 2000 7, 8 9, when we had the Great Recession trust in banks. 'cause remember there were a lot of bank failures there and trust in Wall Street goes down. And finally you find that as unemployment goes down, trust in labor goes up. As GDP goes up, as we get more prosperous, trust in business goes up. So for all those reasons, you have to believe there's something real here

07:23 - because the questions seem to be capturing changes in ways that make sense. just from a a priority perspective, this is the thing that actually has me more worried even than distrust In institutions. Americans have historically been distrustful of governmental institutions. We were founded as a nation that was distrustful of a king. and so it's not surprising that we're distrustful of government, and it arguably is a good thing,

07:47 - that we're worried about authoritarianism and, about governments, which get too powerful. and even institutions, you can imagine, well, that's maybe not a bad thing because in fact, maybe institutions aren't trustworthy. And if they're not trustworthy, then our trust should go down in them. And given the scandals, for example, in the Catholic Church scandals in some of the Protestant churches and other things, you can imagine

08:11 - that trust and religion should go down, and on and on. We, we can give many examples of where there's been events that have maybe made us less trustworthy. Also, the society's becoming more educated. And there's a lot of evidence that suggests that one of the things we do at higher education institutions is we make students question. That's what we're supposed to do. And when we make them question things, they question institutions as well.

08:34 - So all of that sort of makes sense, and at least is okay, maybe, although you wonder if trust gets solo, that it could be really a problem for society, like I indicated earlier. But what really worries me is polarization and trust. Suppose half the society thinks an institution's doing just great, police are doing great. No problems say Republicans by and large, and the other half of the society, Democrats say, no, no,

09:00 - police are really doing a bad job. We have to rethink the police and do policing in an entirely new way. Well, it's gonna be very hard to do anything to solve the problems of the police if you've got such differences of opinion about whether there's even a problem, much less what the solution to that problem should be. So we've got a lot of polarization where we find there are some institutions that are trusted by Democrats and some institutions that are trusted

09:28 - by Republicans more than by Democrats. So Republicans trust big business. That's not a surprise. Banks and Wall Street, and Democrats trust unions. Well, that's a historic artifact of the New Deal Coalition. And going back before that, Republicans basically became the party of business, at least in the 1920s, if not before. So that's not a surprise. But we also find that Republicans trust the norm enforcing institutions,

09:56 - religion, the military, and police, and Democrats distrust them. On the other hand, Republicans distrust higher education, science, journalism, TV news, and Democrats trust those institutions. Science, for a long while was trusted more by Republicans than Democrats, but now is distrusted more by Republicans than by Democrats. And in fact, there's a growing gap between Republicans

10:25 - and Democrats with respect to trust for science. So, and then by the way, in Intel recently, health and law were sort of equally trusted. but now especially with Covid, healthcare system is less trusted by Republicans than it used to be. And therefore, there's a growing gap, polar, a polarization there as well. so what worries me is if you have polarization, how are you gonna solve problems?

10:51 - And how are you gonna get these institutions reformed in ways they need to be reformed, when in fact, Republicans and Democrats can't agree as to whether, even if there's a problem, much less what the solution is, those who study institutions say there's four ways you can get legitimacy. one is it can be bestowed upon you by an, an authority. So for example, when a corporation gets a corporation charter that's bestowing on that corporation, some legitimacy says they can do

11:18 - business within the society. the trouble with that is that increasingly government's not very trusted. the second way is you can do things that are culturally appropriate. So for example, the mafia doesn't do things that are culturally appropriate, so it's not much trusted. but if you do things culturally appropriate, like run your hospital in the way people expect you to run your higher education institution the way people

11:41 - think you should and so forth, then you're going to get some legitimacy and ultimately trust. The third thing you can do is make sure that not only do you run it in a way that makes Sense to the society, and so you're trustworthy, but you also have a process, a a, a set of norms within that institution that makes sure that it does it in an ethical and moral fashion. so you have problems. If Bernie Madoff comes along

12:08 - and takes, advantage of a lot of people and a lot of people lose their money, then the financial system isn't much trusted. You have trouble. If you're the Catholic church and you have pedophile priests, people aren't gonna trust an institution that allows that kind of behavior to go on. so that's, that's the third way, ethical and moral operation of your institution. And then the fourth way is you can just perform well.

12:34 - You know, if you do such a good job, produce such good products, people actually sometimes excuse you for all sorts of other bad behaviors. So big business often gets away with, things like actually sourcing, material or, products from abroad that maybe even use child labor or that involve corruption in terms of bribes and things like that.

12:56 - but they perform so well. They provide such a good product. It's such a low price that people excuse them. Now, there's not a limitless possibility for that. At some point it may catch up with you, as we've seen with various corporations, but those are the four ways you get legitimacy. Government gives it to you. culturally, you do the right thing ethically and morally.

13:16 - You do the right thing, but finally you just perform so well that people say you're great. the trouble is, is that each of those have difficulties these days. as I said, government's not much trusted. And so it's hard to get much, legitimacy by the fact that government has said you're our police department. it's hard sometimes to do things 'cause culturally there's been changes in

13:41 - notions of how things should be done. Police departments are suffering from this because there's been a cultural change in how people think policing should be done. moral and ethically, that's a problem because so many institutions have suffered, partly because of the post-Watergate press, which has really gone into these institutions and looked for corruption. probably a good thing, trying to keep them,

14:05 - doing things correctly, but nevertheless meant that those institutions have suffered, ethical and moral lapses. And then finally, performance, is sometimes very hard to do. It's hard to perform well, and it's not even clear. That always works. The Biden administration, for example, has performed very well by most political scientists, at least standards.

14:26 - They've passed a lot of legislation. The economy is in very good shape by any standard. and yet there Biden himself is not got much confidence, of the American public. so there seems to be a problem even with performance these days. and that brings us to polarization. And that part of the problem seems to be the tremendous polarization we have. A bunch of things seem to be happening. one is

14:50 - That there's all this increased scrutiny of institutions that goes beyond what we used to have before the 1970s, when institutions often got a pass. Certainly the Catholic church, for example, obviously got a pass for very bad behavior, which had been going on for a long time. And that's true of many other institutions. So first of all, the, the press no longer allows them to get away with some of the bad behaviors they used to get away with.

15:15 - So that may explain some of the decline in trust. second of all, there seemed to be forces in American politics, events, things happening, that cause people to have less trust in general of one another and of institutions. And the two big things are inequality has increased. in the 1970s, the top 1% of the wealth distribution had 25% of the wealth. That's a lot. But they now have 40%.

15:43 - they used to have 10% of the income, now they got 20% of the income. so Americans look at this and they say, these institutions are ripping us off. And so inequality is one reason. It seems to me, we haven't proven that link, haven't done the research, but it seems very likely that it's important. The second big trend has been the increase in diversity in America.

16:05 - And, that is linked with immigration as well as just natural increase of, more diverse populations in the United States. So in 1970, we had 83% non-Hispanic white. That is to say the country was pretty homogeneously non-Hispanic white people. Today it's 58% non-Hispanic white with almost 20% Hispanic, 12% African American, 6% Asian American, 5% other.

16:35 - It's a much more diverse nation. And there is research that seems to show that trust is tribal. If your tribe, is not that much represented or you feel it's in decline, you worry that the other tribes are going to maybe take advantage of you or do things you don't want them to do with the society in which you live. And that kind of distrust, might be part of the roots of what we're seeing.

17:04 - and it's disturbing, as it's based upon a presumption that people who don't look like you are somehow untrustworthy. But there certainly seems to be evidence that that's a mechanism that's going on. And then there's finally the whole issue of polarization of trust. that's a separate thing because the, the forces I've talked about so far would affect everybody and everything.

17:26 - the ethical and moral scandals, the, change in inequality and the change in, diversity that would affect trust across the board. The polarization is something different. Why do republicans like some institutions and Democrats, other institutions? I think here probably the reason is that we've had a change in our politics from a politics that focused on economics.

17:52 - The New Deal cleavage it, it used to be called, and it was about business versus labor, basically. now we have another dimension of politics. and that dimension has to do with, issues like abortion, prayer in the schools, gay rights and so forth. These, these are identity issues, and these identity issues are hard to deal with in that. Whereas with economic issues, you can split the difference. Okay, you get two bucks, I get two bucks.

18:23 - That's, that's, that's fair. with abortion, you can't do that. And we've seen that recently with Dobbs. Actually, the road decision did in fact split things up into three trimesters and tried to find what many people felt was a terrible legal decision. But it was pragmatically sort of a sensible way to go. It split the difference. Well, that's been rejected by the Supreme Court now. And increasingly we see groups that are unwilling

18:51 - to split the difference. And that's both on the left and the right. The basic issue with immigration. Now, we've seen how people are just unwilling to split the difference. Compromise is just not possible. And as a result, I think these issues have led to polarization, partly 'cause the institutions, for example, the Republicans Trust are on one side of these issues.

19:12 - And the institutions that Democrats trust are on the, are seen to be on the other side of these issues. And that, I think has caused the polarization that we see. My biggest concern is America's losing its ability to get things done. we saw that recently, in the Congress, with respect to immigration. and in fact this bizarre situation where performative politics, the impeachment of the Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro,

19:42 - Mayorkas, took precedent. Even though the impeachment was gonna go nowhere, it's not gonna be, agreed to by the Senate, which is run by the Democrats. it's actually not even clear that it's based upon any real issues that are impeachable. And in fact, Republicans have themselves said, no, it's not. And that's one reason why the attempt to impeach Mayor Orcas actually failed, at least on the first attempt as of this moment.

20:08 - but instead, an attempt to really solve the problem, a bill, a piece of legislation also failed. And it failed. In fact, as soon as it came out, as soon as it was, offered to the House of Representatives, basically people rejected it probably before many of them had even read it. And so, a lack of willingness to solve problems. Now that's the Congress, and that's the government. That's not these non-political institutions. But I think the same sort

20:38 - of problem is seeping into those nonpolitical institutions. I've mentioned some police medicine, science, religion and so forth. I think that's really worrisome. If those institutions can't solve our societal problems, then we're gonna continue to have problems. We're not gonna solve them, and we're not gonna be able to move forward in ways that we need to. and one of the reasons why I'm especially worried about

21:07 - this is that it turns out that you even find the following to be true. We did a survey, my, my co-author and I in 2019, of a random sample of Americans. We asked them, would you want your kin or your friends to be involved with a journalist? So to marry a journalist, to have friends who was a journalist? Well, republicans said they didn't want their canner friends Republicans said they didn't want their canner friends

21:38 - to be involved with a journalist or somebody in higher education. Democrats said they really didn't want their kind or friends to be, have close connections with those in police, the military or religious institutions. Well, that's very worrisome because again, we see that not only is there polarization, but it's leading to actual, at least professions, if not actual actions, where people say, I don't want my son

22:04 - or daughter to marry an ex. and that's worrisome. we want institutions that have people of all sorts in them so that we have different perspectives within those institutions. and in fact, Republicans are even more worried about their can or friends becoming involved with a journalist than with an atheist or a gay person. That's pretty stunning given what we know about Republicans.

22:30 - So as a result, it's not clear how we're gonna solve problems when we have institutions that are so split, that are so divided and therefore not trusted, and perhaps ultimately incapable of solving problems like epidemics, like problems of police brutality, and many other problems that the society faces.

Faculti AI can make mistakes