"The authors cut through the myth and misconceptions and provide a picture of a nation that has lost some faith in powerful institutions but is surprisingly optimistic. . . . Their conclusions and methods are of inestimable value."--Bill Boyarsky, Los Angeles Times

"Lipset and Schneider adeptly organize and supplement the findings of the many studies that have examined the low levels of trust and confidence in American institutions, and they offer their own provacative conclusions."--Robert Y. Shapiro, Political Science Quarterly

Now with substantial revisions and additions that incorporate data through 1986, The Confidence Gap provides a sweeping analysis of Americans' changing perceptions of their leaders, their institutions, and their country. Using hundreds of public opinon surveys conducted since the beginning of national polling, the book interprets the trends in public confidence over the past half century, defines what Americans like and dislike about business, labor, and government and probes the causes and consequences of these shifting tides in public opinion.

Lipset and Schneider document the American people's dramatic loss of faith in their institutions and leaders during the 1960s and 1970s but noted that public opinion continued to support the American system. The book's new material takes account of the apparent increase in optimism during the Reagan years. This new buoyancy applies mainly to government, the authors show, while confidence in the private sector remains low.

"Despite so clear and consistent a story from all the major polls during the past 15 years, the findings can nevertheless be misread, and [the authors] show how they have been misread by the Reagan Adminstration."--Theodore J. Lowi, New York Times Book Review

Seymour Martin Lipset is the Caroline S. G. Munro Professor of Political Science, professor of sociology, and senior fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Among his many books is the Maclver Prize-winning Political Man: The Social Bases of Politics, also availabe as a Johns Hopkins paperback.

William Schneider is a resident fellow of the American Enterprise Institute. He is a contributing editor of the Los Angeles Times, National Journal, and Public Opinion and has written for the New Republic, Atlantic Monthly, and other publications.