Research Paper: Messaging & Public Opinion on Congress as an Institution

Congress is unpopular: I know, surprise surprise, right?

Public approval of Congress has not exceeded 30 percent in a decade and researchers have connected this disapproval to increased gridlock, partisan polarization, and increased media coverage. However, there is a dearth of studies on the effect of partisan conflict on public opinion on Congress as an institution. By exploring how the increased usage of messaging and message votes could affect public opinion on Congress as a democratic institution through an overview of existing research and two case studies, we can further understand the impact of partisanship on the American people’s faith in democracy.

Here is what researchers have found so far:

• The more knowledgeable Americans are about Congress, the less they believe Congress is doing a good job. However, higher education level is also related to more support for Congress from a purely institutional standpoint.
• The main policy complaint on Congress as an institution is not its partisan lean, but its ineffectiveness.
• The public punishes Congress with lower approval when it engages in interbranch and intra-institutional conflict.
• In the aggregate, citizens’ view of Congress responds negatively to veto overrides, intra-Congress conflict, and the passage of major bills.
• Most people believe that Congressmembers do not often take responsibility for mistakes and that Congressmembers behave unethically at least some of the time without facing serious consequences. They also have less confidence that Congressmembers care about people, provide fair and accurate information, and handle resources responsibly than others also in positions of power such as public school principals, police officers, and religious leaders.
• There has been a substantial increase in social media presence by Congressmembers and a surge in oppositional language in Congressional social media posts in the past five years.

Taken together, these findings suggest that there could be a connection between messaging and lack of faith in Congress as an institution.

Next, I explored two case studies, the Affordable Care Act and tax cuts in 2018. Both cases are examples of messaging campaigns where one party actively worked to make the system ineffective, negatively impacting the American people and contributing to the perception that Congress is nonfunctional and untrustworthy. 

Therefore, existing research demonstrates a plausible connection between increased partisan messaging and lack of faith in Congress as an institution. Without further research, it is impossible to prove correlation or causation; however, this exploration of the current research reveals a significant hole in the literature. If causation or correlation were found, it would imply that partisan conflict not only is counterproductive to party interests, but could weaken American democracy.