Political Paper

The views of Americans on politics specifically the political institutions are been on the negative side for some time now. The political atmosphere is one that most citizens don’t understand or sympathize with, and as time has gone on the opinion on politics by citizens has been skeptical. The reason behind the skeptical views included the actions of politicians, and the election process that has turn out elections where the popular preference wasn’t the winner. The U.S way of electing official has created the basis for reflecting a process that does have some flaws. The authors Donovan and Bowler write about specific elections which resulted in mixed feelings about the winner. The question then is does having more public influence over government result in a positive outcome? Well the increase of public influence over government would ultimately create the staple for eliminating special interest group which would no longer have the power over single politician since the public is involved.

The issue of the American people being skeptical of their government comes from people simply not feeling that they’re represented (Donovan and bowler pg7). The public perception of government has being decreasing since the 1960, and as the 1990 public discontent with elected officials decreased even further. According to Donovan and Bowler “By 2002 only 33 percent of Americans thought that public officials cared about what people like them thought down from 73 percent in the 1960” (Donovan and Bowler pg 39).One sees the big drop in the public content with the government why is there such a big drop in the percentage from the 60’s to now? The straight answer for the discontent would have to be all the scandals and corruption along the public officials. Some would be quick to put the blame for the cynical feelings of the public on the media, but the fact is that the public has just begun to receive there information from television the drop in contentment had already been dropping (Donovan and Bowler pg 22). The quick judgment of the media seems to be a way of placing blame somewhere else. Along with the public discontent with public officials and the way they portray themselves there is another concern. The election process in which the results of elections specifically the 1996 and 2000 elections, which are pointed out in the Donovan and Bowler book, has resulted on a lack of satisfaction by citizens. According to the two authors Americans negative views towards politics is that the American political institutions fail to reflect popular preference. The 1996 election resulted in official being elected with lower popular vote then his opponent and the 2000 presidential election the winner lost the popular vote. In 1996 the republican house majority was elected with just 48.9 percent of the national vote (Donovan and Bowler pg 11). The presidential election in 1996, in which, Clinton won the presidency with only 49 percent of the vote, and the 2000 presidential election produced a winner who lost the popular. The outcomes