Falling Confidence

From The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research:

Americans’ confidence in the Supreme Court, the executive branch, and Congress has been declining over the last decade and each are at or near record lows in 2014, according to an analysis of the General Social Survey conducted by the AP-NORC Center and GSS. Fewer Americans report having a great deal of confidence in the Supreme Court (23 percent) and Congress (5 percent) than at any other time in the last 40 years, and confidence in the executive branch is also near an all-time low (11 percent).

Confidence in the media remains at an all-time low with 7 percent of adults saying they have a great deal of confidence in the press and 10 percent reporting a great deal of confidence in television.

A significant majority of Americans do not have a great deal of confidence in either banks or major companies, but confidence has rebounded slightly from all-time lows in 2010. Confidence in organized labor has changed little in the last decade, with only about 1 in 10 Americans reporting a great deal of confidence.

In comparison, confidence in the military remains high (50 percent report a great deal of confidence), and the percentages of Americans reporting a great deal of confidence in organized religion (19 percent), education (25 percent), medicine (38 percent), and the scientific community (41 percent) have been relatively stable over the last decade.