Here's a press release we just received from our friends over at The Future of American Democracy Foundation :
THE FUTURE OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY FOUNDATION
July 1, 2009 - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Public Confidence in the State of the Nation
Public attitudes have changed significantly since our last report, issued before the inauguration of President Obama. Among the most striking changes are the following:
* Confidence levels that the country is moving in the right direction have improved sharply (though perceptions of how well the economy is doing divides along partisan lines). * The public feels that there is now a mix of good and bad news about the economy, rather than just unrelieved bad news. * The number of Americans who expect their personal finances to improve has risen to more than six out of ten but fewer than four out of ten rate their personal finances as excellent or good * The public is hopeful that President Obama's policies will improve the economy in the long run, but they think it is too early to see any concrete positive impact. * Rising levels of unemployment dampen peoples' hopes for the near term, as do the prospect of huge ever-growing deficits (yet, more than four out of ten Americans believe that the economy will improve over the next 12 months). * The vast majority of Americans have cut back on their spending in the interest of saving money or not having it to spend. There are many indications that the new attitudes towards thriftiness will persist even after the economy recovers. * The majority supports President Obama's overall economic program, but there is less support for government spending to bail out the automobile companies.
* Mistrust in the business community has increased, supporting stronger regulation.
In summary, though Americans are still dissatisfied with the state of the economy and their own financial situation, they are more confident about the future. If "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself," there are grounds for optimism because most Americans betray few signs of genuine fear. The current report shows that Americans continue to express a great deal of concern about the current State of the Nation but have hope for the future.
The findings of this report suggest that President Obama is still in the "honeymoon phase" enjoyed by all our most recent Presidents. In this phase, what counts most is Presidential rhetoric: how forcefully and clearly the president articulates his goals and policies providing that these match the public's own values and objectives. We are however, now entering a new phase. Public confidence will be sustained in the future only if the public perceives that the President and his Administration are actually producing positive results.
Public Confidence in the State of the Nation is the most important indicator of the health of our Democracy. This report is designed to provide a barometer of public confidence based on data gathered by America's major public opinion research organizations. The report was compiled under the supervision of the Chairman of the Foundation, Norton Garfinkle, and the Chairman of the Foundation's Board of Advisors, Daniel Yankelovich, the Founder of the Public Agenda and America's foremost analyst of public opinion.
The complete report is available at www.tfadf.org
CONTACT:
Norton GarfinklePhone: (212) 486-0194
email: ngarfinkle@tfadf.org
Chair
Norton Garfinkle
Executive Committee
Jonathan Brent
Yale University Press
Ian Shapiro
Yale University
Chair, Advisory Board
Daniel Yankelovich
Public Agenda
Secretary/Treasurer
William R. Griffith
Reed Smith LLP
Advisory Board
John Donatich
Yale University Press
Fredrica S. Friedman
President
Fredrica S. Friedman & Co, Inc.
Richard D. Heffner
Rutgers University
Thomas E. Mann
The Brookings Institution
Norman Ornstein
American Enterprise Institute
Hugh Price
Former President
National Urban League
Jeffrey Rosen
George Washington University
Alan Wolfe
Boston College
Ruth A. Wooden
Public Agenda
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The Future of American Democracy Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan foundation dedicated to research and education. The mission of the Foundation is to renew and sustain the historic vision of democracy that has unified Americans throughout the nation's history and to stimulate historically informed analysis and debate on contemporary public policy issues. The Foundation seeks to enable the American public and public policy thinkers throughout the country to have a direct impact on public policy debate and action. The Foundation works in close partnership with Yale University Press and the Yale Center for International and Area Studies to sponsor books, articles, lectures, and other publications and presentations, with the goal of clarifying the domestic and foreign policy choices facing the United States in the years ahead. |
 Uniting America: Restoring the Vital Center to American Democracy |
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A distinguished group of scholars and experts serves as the Foundation's officers and as members of the Foundation's Board of Advisors, including Jonathan Brent (Editorial Director of Yale University Press), John Donatich (Director, Yale University Press), Fredrica S. Friedman (President of Fredrica S. Friedman & Co., Inc.), Norton Garfinkle (Chair of the Foundation), William R. Griffith (Reed Smith LLP), Richard D. Heffner (Host, "The Open Mind"), Thomas E. Mann (The Brookings Institution), Norman Ornstein (American Enterprise Institute), Hugh Price (Former President of the National Urban League), Jeffrey Rosen (George Washington University), Ian Shapiro (Sterling Professor and Director of the Yale Center for International and Area Studies), Alan Wolfe (Boston College), Ruth A. Wooden (President, Public Agenda) and Daniel Yankelovich (Chairman, Public Agenda). Together with Yale University Press, the Foundation sponsors the Future of American Democracy series of books by some of America's foremost thinkers. The books in the series present a new, balanced, centrist approach to examining the challenges American democracy has faced in the past and must overcome in the years ahead. The first five books in the series were published in 2006 and 2007.
A major objective of the Foundation is to bring America's vast informational resources to bear more fully on contemporary policy debate. The Foundation acts as a unique clearing-house for public policy and public opinion research with the objective of disseminating this work to a broad audience of policymakers, legislators, the media, and concerned citizens. The Foundation supports research into the full range of public policy issues, from taxation, Social Security, and health care, to American culture, U.S. foreign policy, and the effort to spread democracy internationally. Foundation plans include support for the publication of additional Yale University Press books and sponsorship of lectures under the auspices of the Yale Center for International and Area Studies. The Foundation has identified 3 major subject areas to be covered by books and lectures in partnership with Yale University and Yale University Press. In addition, the Foundation is planning television programming to cover these major subjects. 1. American Democracy in a Dangerous World Click onto Project Areas to find a detailed description of the specific subjects covered under each of these general descriptions. In both its research and education efforts, the Foundation is committed to applying the highest standards of scholarship in a balanced, nonpartisan fashion in the expectation that careful and fair-minded analysis of public policy issues will enable the American public to move beyond the partisan approaches seen in recent years and secure sensible, centrist solutions to our policy challenges. | |