The Searchlight Approach to Anti-Corruption Policy

The Problem

• Americans’ trust in the federal government has fallen sharply — especially in the last two decades. This plummeting support predates Donald Trump and is likely to outlast him unless lawmakers get serious about restoring the public trust. 
• To get serious about changing perceptions of the government, leaders  must take more dramatic steps to respond to the public’s legitimate demands for much higher levels of government transparency and accountability. 
• We are living through the most corrupt administration in history, but the issue runs deeper than any one presidency and speaks to the forces that brought Trump to power. People knew Trump was corrupt and reelected him anyway. 
• The American public has lost faith in the government to do just about anything right and sees its leaders as bought-and-paid-for careerists who listen to everyone except their own constituents. Until trust is rebuilt, voters will continue to try to “shock” the system in hopes of changing it.

The Terrain

• There is an element of the public’s view of corruption that is unaddressed by most current anti-corruption proposals: voters want lawmakers to be held to high standards of performance and fitness for office, and demand much greater transparency about how members spend their time. Voters pay the salaries of elected officials, and want to know what they are doing on the taxpayers’ dime.
• Solid majorities of Americans view both major political parties as somewhat or very corrupt. While a strong majority still sees voting as an effective means of creating change in the country, there is deep pessimism about the government’s capacity to deliver goods and services for everyday Americans.
• There is a perception not only that political leaders are in it for themselves, but also that they’re an elite group catering mostly to an even more elite (and wealthy) group.
• Voters don’t trust the government to do what’s right. Only 16% of Americans think the government will act in their best interest most of the time. That’s a stark finding that should promote bipartisan pause.
• Voters don’t believe anything will change. Americans broadly indicate robust support for a raft of good government measures, but simultaneously express skepticism that any of them will come to pass within a decade.
• There’s a silver lining. A solid majority (53%) of voters seem willing to revisit their trust in the system if it begins to perform better in their eyes.

The Searchlight Approach

Leaders should take voter attitudes about corruption more seriously than they have up to this point. Elected officials must champion concrete steps and policy reforms that get to the heart of why people have lost faith in government and the political system writ large.

Leaders can address voters’ concerns about corruption by embracing higher standards for performance in office and greater transparency about how they spend their time. Proposals such as bans on stock trading by members are also necessary, but do not address voters’ concern about members’ performance in office and how they spend their time.

There are powerful anti-corruption measures members of Congress can take without the need for legislation. Elected leaders can simply enact measures that hold themselves to higher standards of transparency and performance, and candidates can pledge to do so when in office. 

In terms of what such measures would look like, our polling identifies a series of innovative policy solutions that hold broad support among voters and, if implemented, could begin to address their top concerns:

• Removing elected officials who cannot do their jobs because of mental decline (87% support)
• Requiring drug tests for elected officials (81% support)
• Tracking and reporting elected officials’ work hours (75% support)
• Instituting an annual town hall requirement for members of Congress (73% support)

Voters also continue to strongly support term limits (85%) and bans on members of Congress trading stocks (69%), but it’s important for political leaders to start viewing those proposals as the floor for addressing voters’ concerns — and not the ceiling.

Members of Congress could easily begin clawing back the “trust deficit” by providing an hour-by-hour breakdown of their schedules on their official websites, announcing quarterly town halls in their states or congressional districts, and holding press availabilities for in-state media that don’t have a Washington, D.C., bureau.

Conclusion

There is no one policy that can fix voters’ deeply-held  perceptions of corruption overnight. The upshot for leaders concerned about public trust  is that a majority of voters seem willing to revisit said trust in the system if the government begins to perform better in their eyes. There is a narrow opening to reset perceptions, and leaders should seize on the opportunity zealously.

Bottom line: Elected officials need to get ostentatious about demonstrating their commitment to doing right by the people who elected them. That starts by implementing strong anti-corruption measures that hold leaders accountable and begin reshaping the public trust in government.