Such trends look especially worrying for the United States and President George Bush in particular. According to public survey data published in May by Harris Monitoring only 24 per cent of Americans positively assess the work of the White House master (versus 28 per cent in February 2008). 75 per cent of Americans negatively assess their President (vs 69 per cent in February). In so doing, the trend of negative assessment of the head of state by the US population is consistent. The hard-hitting results are recorded very regularly. In particular, according to a poll conducted by CNN in May, only 28 per cent of the USA people were ready to assign the highest rating to Bush. While 71 per cent of respondents appraised his work as “satisfactory” (earlier such grave results were recorded with respect to President Harry Truman – in 1952 when 67 per cent assessed him negatively and 22 per cent approved his policy, and Richard Nixon – 66 per cent and 24 per cent respectively in August 1974) . Before it, in January, NBC and The Wall-Street Journal reported that 41 per cent of the US citizens consider George Bush “one of the worst” heads of state in the US history, 29 per cent -”not as good as a majority” and only 5 per cent – “one of the best”. According to respectful web site RealClearPolitics, which is involved in processing of all poll data an average negative rating of the actual Oval Office master as of this May was at the level of 65.2 per cent, while a positive average rating - at the level of 29.35 per cent.
The rating of George Bush’s team members is not better. For example, in June only 18 per cent of Americans appraised Vice-President Dick Cheney positively (vs 22 per cent in February), and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice – 36 per cent (vs 46 per cent respectively).
In general, according to a public survey conducted in June by Rasmussen Reports, only 17 per cent of respondents believe that the US authorities fulfill the will of the people. 86 per cent of respondents have an opposite opinion. 67 per cent of Americans believe that the US Administration became “a special group of people who take into account only their own but not national interests in general”, meanwhile 15 per cent of respondents disagree with this opinion.
“A bitter cup” of people’s mistrust didn’t pass over the UK authorities too. A public survey published late this spring by The Financial Times shows that 66 per cent of the United Kingdom citizens are “absolutely not sure” that the Government will manage with the economic crisis. Only 28 per cent of Britons currently support the Gordon Brown-led ruling Labor party. In so doing, 44 per cent of citizens feel sympathy for the opposition Conservative party and 17 per cent – to the Liberal party (the Internet poll conducted to the order of The Sunday Times).
The polls simultaneously revealed the drop of a British Prime Minister personal rating. On a conventional scale the ground support of Gordon Brown decreased from September 2007 from +48 down to -37. The drop of trust to the Head of Government became the most significant in the prime-minister rating history of Great Britain (from the 30s). According to The Sunday Times, “even the result of Arthur Chamberlain whose ground support dropped after the Hitler’s invasion of Norway in 1940 from +21 down to -27 was not comparable with the negative result of Mr. Brown”.
In France President Nicolas Sarkozy in April was supported by 32 per cent of people only. 64 per cent of citizens flatly disapproved the activities of the Elysee Palace master. This figure marked “a minus-record” because according to political analysts none of the Republic Presidents received such a low appraisal in the history of the country (at least from the beginning of such regular public surveys in 1981).
In Canada a survey conducted by Company Harris/Decima showed that only 40 per cent of citizens were satisfied with the work of the Government headed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper (versus 53 per cent in December 2007). 51 per cent of respondents supported the policy of the Ottawa authorities (61 per cent in December 2007). According to a public survey conducted by the Secretariat of the Head of Government (late May – early June), 45 per cent of Canadians believed that the Cabinet of Ministers inadequately fulfils its duties in provision of “transparent and fair” governance of the country. 43 per cent of the people claimed that the authorities are inadequately accountable to the citizens for financial expenditures.
The ground support of the ruling Canadian Conservative party is slightly more than 30 per cent (vs 37 per cent in February and 33 per cent in January).
The situation is bad in Norway too. According to a public survey conducted in late June by Norstat at the request of newspaper Verdens Gang the level of population support to the tree-party coalition (the Workers party (WP), Socialist Left party (SLP) and Agrarian party (AP)) is decreasing. Experts point out that at the given rating if the parliamentary election were held today the WP, SWP and AP together would receive only 66 seats in the Storting (the highest legislative agency of the country) while to form a cabinet of ministers they need 85 seats.
In early July, 60 per cent of Norwegians expressed non-confidence vote against the Government of Jens Stoltenberg, they believe that the actual executive authorities should be mandatory replaced as their term expires in 2009.
Obviously, politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians… Moreover, to the politicians who forget that the voters gave them a mandate only but not a carte blanch.
