As I'm putting together notes for a discussion of the legislative branch, I'm faced with a quandary. While commentators dating back to Madison and before talk about the legislative branch as having a special connection to the general population, the contemporary Congress has lower approval ratings than either of the other two branches.
This is according to a recently released Gallup Poll:
At a time when President Obama is asking Congress to develop and pass far-reaching healthcare reform legislation, a record-low 45% of Americans say they have a great deal or fair amount of trust in the legislative branch of government, far fewer than trust the judicial (76%) or executive (61%) branches. Second only to the judicial branch are Americans themselves -- 73% trust "the American people as a whole" to make judgments about the issues facing the country.
It is especially ironic that the judicary is trusted more than the other branches since it is the one appointed for lifetime terms, and the most fully removed from the preferences of the general population. This goes against everything we say in class about the degree to which each institution is tied into the preferences of the general population.
I'm open for explanations.
I do have a cynical take on this however. We don't like Congress because it's closely tied to our immediate preferences. The general population is flighty, superficial and unstable and this is reflected in the behavior our representatives. When we see it in action, we don't like what we see. We prefer the institutions that are removed from our worst tendencies.
But maybe I'm just having a bad day.
