Here is what Bryan Caplan has to say about how people think about government in Myth of the Rational Voter:
One striking instance of unreasoning deference: Shortly after 9/11, pools strangely found that the nation’s citizens suddenly had more faith in their government. How often can you ‘trust the government in Washington to do what is right’? In 2000, only 30% of Americans said ‘just about always’ or ‘most of the time.’ Two weeks after 9/11, that number more than doubled to 64%. It is hard to see consumers trusting GM more after a major accident forces a recall. The public’s reaction is akin to that of a religious sects who mispredict the end of the world: “we believe now more than ever.”
People just don’t think about government the way they think about anything else.
Consider the United States Health Care market. In 1970 the portion of mandatory federal spending on health care was 5%. In 2010 it was 24.4%. Suppose as many do that today health care in the United States is a totally broken system, what presumption should we start with of what’s causing it? The idea that government might have something to do with the problem should be an obvious place to look. What do I hear over and over again from others? I hear that health care is broken – therefore government.
Every time something goes wrong people turn to government to solve it – like a child brainwashed by her abusive father. Trust in government increases when social problems increase – look at FDR’s four successful elections during the great depression. Even when the social problem was correlated with a steady increase in government involvement, the public likely interprets it as government fighting a losing battle.
