American Government - Essay Example

Thus, a healthy U.S. economy boasts the confidence and trust of the American people. One of the proposed agenda by Galston for the Obama administration significantly refers to the jobs and opportunities. Especially for the middle-class American citizen, Galston thinks that creating and implementing “infrastructure development” program will substantially increase the trust of the public to the federal government. In the present-day America, jobs are becoming highly competitive. Moreover, job applicants greatly come, aside from Anglo-Americans, from multiracial and varied groups -- that is, non-white Americans.

It is arguable that job or work is evidently important for the Americans not only because of its economic implication, but also of its personal or social implication. Galston suggests to the Obama administration to design and enforce a long-term infrastructure development that generates jobs and opportunities. (This is reminiscent to Roosevelt’s New Deal.) If pursued, the general public may put highly their trust to the federal government. Nye says that one of the causes for the public to trust the government is the increase of social capital, family ties, among other features characterized in the socio-cultural dimension (qtd.

in Moon 2). When there is a high sense of social capital in the American society, the general public will theoretically place their confidence to the government’s policies and programs. Furthermore, the American people are known for their love of freedom and liberty -- a feature prominent in the socio-cultural sphere. If the public felt or perceived a strong sense of respect by the government and its other agencies to their individual civil rights (e.g., the right to transparency) -- all things being equal – then the American people will put their trust to the federal government.

Galston encourages the administration of Obama to place a heavy emphasis to reform and innovation. Public trust substantially rises when the American people observe a timely and reasonable reform and innovation pursued by the government. Reform is essential for the general public especially when the previous administration (e.g., the Bush administration) had failed to fulfill the general expectations of the American citizen. Reform must also be concrete. Meaning to say, the public has to see or perceive that there is a significant change or improvement from the condition marked in, say, the Bush administration to the present condition: from crisis to resolution.

Geer et al. implicitly remark that the federal government must do what is right in order for it to gain the people’s trust (180). In the February 2010 survey estimate, there has been a decline of public confidence because the American people perceived the government's failure to do what is right (Geer et al. 180). What is right is contextual. For instance, the health care bill crafted and enforced by the Obama administration can be a manifestation of the government’s action as doing what is right.

Doing what is right could also imply how the bill was legislated in the congressional level. In general, the causes for public to trust the government greatly depend on the perception of the American people if it is doing something right. Chanley, Rudolph, and Rahn note that the negative perception to the U.S. economy is one of the