The State You See: How Government Visibility Creates Political Distrust and Racial Inequality

Rosenthal, Aaron J.

doi:doi:10.3998/mpub.12393424

The State You See: How Government Visibility Creates Political Distrust and Racial Inequality

Aaron J. Rosenthal

Open Access

The State You See uncovers a racial gap in the way the American government appears in people's lives. It makes it clear that public policy changes over the last fifty years have driven all Americans to distrust the government that they see in their lives, even though Americans of different races are not seeing the same kind of government.

For white people, these policy changes have involved a rising number of generous benefits submerged within America's tax code, which taken together cost the government more than Social Security and Medicare combined. Political attention focused on this has helped make welfare and taxes more visible representations of government for white Americans. As a result, white people are left with the misperception that government does nothing for them, apart from take their tax money to spend on welfare. Distrust of government is the result. For people of color, distrust is also rampant but for different reasons. Over the last fifty years, America has witnessed increasingly overbearing policing and swelling incarceration numbers. These changes have disproportionately impacted communities of color, helping to make the criminal legal system a unique visible manifestation of government in these communities.

While distrust of government emerges in both cases, these different roots lead to different consequences. White people are mobilized into politics by their distrust, feeling that they must speak up in order to reclaim their misspent tax dollars. In contrast, people of color are pushed away from government due to a belief that engaging in American elections will yield the same kind of unresponsiveness and violence that comes from interactions with the police. The result is a perpetuation of the same kind of racial inequality that has always been present in American democracy. The State You See is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding how the American government engages in subtle forms of discrimination and how it continues to uphold racial inequality in the present day.

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Published: 2023

Publisher: University of Michigan Press

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978-0-472-90332-0 (open access)
978-0-472-07599-7 (hardcover)
978-0-472-05599-9 (paper)

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Line graph comparing levels of trust in government for Black and white Americans from 1958 to 2018.

Figure 1.1: Percentage of People Saying They Trust Government to do Right Most or All of the Time Across Racial Groups, 1958-2018

From Chapter 1

Figure 1.1. Sources: Pew, ANES, Gallup, ABC/Washington Post, CBS/New York Times, CNN.

Flow chart showing pathways between multiple boxes. Boxes used to indicate different stages at which social variation in government visibility can be created.

Figure 1.2: Theoretical Framework: How Socially Patterned Variation in Government Visibility is Created

From Chapter 1

Figure 1.2. Theoretical framework: How socially patterned variation in government visibility is created

Bar chart comparing use of submerged programs for whites and people of color. For each racial group, one bar shows the number of people who indicated they had received at least one submerged program and the other bar shows number of people saying they had never received a submerged program.

Figure 2.1: Use of Submerged Programs Across Racial Groups

From Chapter 2

Figure 2.1. Use of submerged programs across racial groups. Source: Social and Government Issues and Participation Survey

Bar graph comparing number of submerged programs used by whites and people of color. Bars represent predicted number of submerged programs received for individuals in each racial group.

Figure 2.2: Number of Submerged Programs Used Across Racial Groups

From Chapter 2

Figure 2.2. Number of submerged programs used across racial groups. Differences are not statistically different at p = .21. 95 percent confidence intervals shown. All other independent variables are held at their means or modes. Source: The Maxwell Poll.

Two bar graphs comparing number of submerged programs used by whites and people of color. Left panel shows a bar graph for the number of means-tested submerged programs received. Right panel shows a bar graph for the number of universal submerged programs received. Each panel contains bars for both whites and people of color.

Figure 2.3: Type of Submerged Programs Used Across Racial Groups

From Chapter 2

Figure 2.3. Type of submerged programs used across racial groups. 95 percent confidence intervals shown. All other independent variables held at their means or modes. Source: SGIP.

Line graph comparing the relationship between police attitudes and support for limited government among whites and people of color.

Figure 3.1: Support for Limited Government and Police Attitudes Across Racial Groups

From Chapter 3

Figure 3.1. Support for limited government and police attitudes across racial groups. Slopes are statistically different at p=.02. 95 percent confidence intervals shown. All other independent variables are held at their means or modes. Source: ANES 2016.

Line graph showing the declining level of trust in government among the American public from 1958 to 2018.

Figure 4.1: Percentage of People Saying They Trust Government to do Right Most or All of the Time, 1958-2018

From Chapter 4

Figure 4.1. Percentage of people saying they trust government to do right most or all of the time, 1958–2018. Sources: Pew, ANES, Gallup, ABC/Washington Post, CBS/New York Times, CNN.

Line graph comparing the relationship between welfare attitudes and level of trust in government among whites and people of color.

Figure 4.2: Political Trust and Welfare Attitudes Across Racial Groups

From Chapter 4

Figure 4.2. Political trust and welfare attitudes across racial groups. Slopes are statistically different at p = .049. 95 percent confidence intervals shown. All other independent variables are held at their means or modes. Source: ANES 2016.

Line graph comparing the relationship between government spending attitudes and level of trust in government among whites and people of color.

Figure 4.3: Political Trust and Government Spending Attitudes Across Racial Groups

From Chapter 4

Figure 4.3. Political Trust and Government Spending Attitudes Across Racial Groups. Slopes are statistically different at p = .023. 95 percent confidence intervals shown. All other independent variables are held at their means or modes. Source: ANES 2016.

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The State You See: How Government Visibility Creates Political Distrust and Racial Inequality

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Figure 1.1: Percentage of People Saying They Trust Government to do Right Most or All of the Time Across Racial Groups, 1958-2018

Figure 1.2: Theoretical Framework: How Socially Patterned Variation in Government Visibility is Created

Figure 2.1: Use of Submerged Programs Across Racial Groups

Figure 2.2: Number of Submerged Programs Used Across Racial Groups

Figure 2.3: Type of Submerged Programs Used Across Racial Groups

Figure 3.1: Support for Limited Government and Police Attitudes Across Racial Groups

Figure 4.1: Percentage of People Saying They Trust Government to do Right Most or All of the Time, 1958-2018

Figure 4.2: Political Trust and Welfare Attitudes Across Racial Groups

Figure 4.3: Political Trust and Government Spending Attitudes Across Racial Groups

Figure 4.4: Political Trust and Police Attitudes Across Racial Groups

Figure 4.5: Political Trust and Police Attitudes Across Racial Groups, 1966

Figure 5.1: Political Trust Levels and Turnout Rates, 1964-2012

Figure 5.2: Political Trust and Political Participation Across Racial Groups

Figure 5.3: Political Trust and Political Participation Across Racial Groups, 1964

Figure 6.1: Protest Participation and Support for Black Lives Matter

Figure 6.2: Scale of Participatory Acts and Political Trust Across Racial Groups and Support for Black Lives Matter

Figure 6.3: Protest Participation and Political Trust Across Racial Groups and Support for Black Lives Matter

Figure 6.4: Political Trust and Police Attitudes Across Racial Groups and Support for Black Lives Matter

Online Appendix F for The State You See: Robustness Checks

The State You See: How Government Visibility Creates Political Distrust and Racial Inequality

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