Table 5A.5
Trust in Government Index  1958-2004


                           '58  '60  '62  '64  '66  '68  '70  '72  '74  '76  '78  '80  '82  '84  '86  '88  '90  '92  '94  '96  '98  '00  '02  '04 
 
   Average Score on Index   49   **   **   52   61   45   39   38   29   30   29   27   31   38   47   34   29   29   26   32   34   36   43   37


     Source:  The American National Election Studies

     

     The Trust in Government Index is constructed as follows:
     Variable 604 (Table 5A.1) is recoded:  None of the Time=0,
     Some of the Time=33, Most of the Time=67, Just About Always=100.
     Variable V605 (Table 5A.2) is recoded:  Few Big Interests=0,
     Benefit of All=100.  Variable 606 (Table 5A.3) is recoded:
     A Lot=0, Some=50, Not Much=100.
     Variable 608 (Table 5A.4) is recoded:  Quite a Lot=0, Not Many=50,
     Hardly Any=100.
     These new scores are then totaled (Don't Know is not scored)
     and the sum is divided by the number of valid responses.  The
     result is then rounded to the nearest integer.
      
     "People have (1958,1964: I'd like to talk about some of the) different
     ideas about the government in Washington. These ideas don't refer
     to democrats or republicans in particular, but just to government in
     general. We want to see how you feel about these ideas..
     V604: "How much of the time do you think you can trust the government
     in Washington to do what is right-- just about always, most of the
     time or only some of the time?"
     V605: "Would you say the government is pretty much run by a few big
     interests looking out for themselves or that it is run for the
     benefit of all the people?"
     V606: "Do you think that people in the government waste a lot of money
     we pay in taxes, waste some of it, or don't waste very much of it?"
     V608: "Do you think that quite a few of the people running the
     government are (1958-1972: a little) crooked, not very many are, or do
     you think hardly any of them are crooked (1958-1972: at all)?"
       
     This represents variables VCF0656 in the NES Cumulative Data File dataset.
     Consult the Cumulative Data File codebook for complete question text and annotation.
     Weight variable VCF0009a was used to produce this table.

Table generated:  27NOV05