IV. OHIOANS FEEL THEIR VOTE MATTERS, BUT LACK CONFIDENCE IN KEY INSTITUTIONSOhio Civic Health Index Report 2009November 10, 2009
Downloads • People like me don’t have any say about what the government does. • So many other people vote in the national elections that it doesn’t matter much to me whether I vote or not. • Sometimes politics and government seem so complicated that a person like me can’t really understand what’s going on. About 51% of Ohio respondents —as compared with 47% of the national sample— disagreed with the statement that “people like me don’t have any say about what the government does.” While it is an even bet whether or not Ohioans believe they have a voice in government, we are slightly more optimistic about our activities at the polls. Ohio voters believe their vote matters: 76% of respondents disagreed with the idea that their vote matters little in the national elections, as compared with 70% of the national sample. Ohio is famously a political battleground state, and its electoral votes were decisive factors in the last two presidential elections; being the center of attention seems to have convinced most Ohioans that their votes matter. On the other hand, Ohioans perceive public affairs as overly complicated. Fifty-four percent of Ohio respondents agreed with the statement “sometimes politics and government seem so complicated that a person like me can’t really understand what is going on.” On the basis of the survey, more than half the respondents are at times baffled by the world of politics, government, and public affairs. As in other research, we find a positive relationship between a citizens’ feeling of political efficacy, and the degree to which he or she is civically engaged. For example, people in our survey who believed that their vote matters were more likely to attend a community meeting, work on a community project, and allow a friend or relative to live in their home for a period of time because they needed a temporary place to live. This relationship between citizen empowerment and engagement makes good sense; if people believe they can make a difference, they will engage more in civic, political, and volunteer activities. Our confidence and trust in our social institutions is another factor that helps citizens to decide whether and how to engage in their communities. We tend to become more involved in public life when we have some measure of basic faith in the institutions that are central to these efforts. When surveyed about their confidence in an array of public and private institutions, Ohioans responded that they had the most faith in small businesses, but still small businesses could only garner a vote of confidence from a little more than one-third of respondents. With minor fluctuation, Ohioans and their national counterparts share similar, if pessimistic, views of the major institutions of society. Public institutions like schools, Congress, and the Executive Branch of government ranged in confidence from 16% to 4%. Ohioans join the nation in expressing little faith in these institutions designed to serve and promote the public interest. Similarly, faith in the press, at 9%, does not bode well for a democratic citizenry who depend upon the popular press to play a major role in monitoring the public and private world. Continue Reading If you like this kind of content, sign up for an NCoC.net account and we'll customize your homepage recommendations based on your interests..
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