ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a detailed description of the nature of public attitudes toward Congress; this review is necessary because most previous writings on the topic give short shrift to description of the public mood itself. The chapter addresses possible causes of the negative attitudes toward Congress. People who identified with the same party and general ideological positions as the majority in the Congress were more likely to approve of the performance of the Congress as were people who felt personally efficacious. Perhaps the most surprising relationships are those between education and congressional approval, and between political involvement and congressional approval. Congressional job approval questions have been asked for more than fifty years, and except for temporary blips here and there, these questions show a public that generally disapproves of how the Congress performs its job.
