American public policy has become demonstrably more conservative since the 1960s. Neither Jimmy Carter nor Bill Clinton was much like either John F. Kennedy or Lyndon Johnson. The American public, however, has not become more conservative. Why, then, the right turn in public policy? Using both individual and aggregate level survey data, Marc Hetherington shows that the rapid decline in Americans' political trust since the 1960s is critical to explaining this puzzle. As people lost faith in the federal government, the delivery system for most progressive policies, they supported progressive ideas much less. The 9/11 attacks increased such trust as public attention focused on security, but the effect was temporary.Specifically, Hetherington shows that, as political trust declined, so too did support for redistributive programs, such as welfare and food stamps, and race-targeted programs. While the presence of race in a policy area tends to make political trust important for whites, trust affects policy preferences in other, non-race-related policy areas as well. In the mid-1990s the public was easily swayed against comprehensive health care reform because those who felt they could afford coverage worried that a large new federal bureaucracy would make things worse for them. In demonstrating a strong link between public opinion and policy outcomes, this engagingly written book represents a substantial contribution to the study of public opinion and voting behavior, policy, and American politics generally.

Provocative, smoothly written, and supported by appropriate data, this is a first-rate book by a first-rate scholar. The message is timely and the thesis unique and believable. -- John Hibbing, University of Nebraska, author of "Stealth Democracy: Americans' Beliefs about How Government Should Work" Why Trust Matters adds a new dimension to the study of trust in government by showing the consequences of prolonged political distrust on support for liberal social welfare policies. Hetherington shows that the decline in support is due not to increased conservatism in the population, but rather due to declining trust. -- Samantha Luks, University of Minnesota

List of Figures ix List of Tables xi Acknowledgments xiii CHAPTER ONE: Why Political Trust Matters 1 CHAPTER TWO: Political Trust and Its Evolution 8 CHAPTER THREE: Political Distrust, Not Conservatism 36 CHAPTER FOUR: The Dynamic Importance of Political Trust 62 CHAPTER FIVE: Political Trust and Public Support for Government Spending 75 CHAPTER SIX: Political Trust and the Racial Policy Preferences of Whites 99 CHAPTER SEVEN: Political Trust and the Demise of Health Care Reform 120 CHAPTER EIGHT: Political Trust and the Future of American Politics 138 Notes 155 References 163 Index 171