Positive Support for Political Institutions: the Case of Congress

T IS a truism that politicial systems, if they are to survive, must convince their relevant publics that they are effective and legitimate. Change produces crises of legitimacy, from which no polity is entirely immune. Although the legitimacy of political institutions in the United States has sometimes been taken for granted, it is clear that it has undergone periodic crises. It is thus appropriate that political scientists have begun to turn their attention to the level of public support for political institutions. Support has been described as a "summary variable" that constitutes a major linkage between the political system and its environment. Survival of a political system depends upon the maintenance of attitudes favorable to, and supportive of, its values and institutions. Fluctuations in support may stress the system in several different ways: