Government
Beginning in 2004, the FrameWorks Institute initiated a series of integrated research projects designed to identify ways to communicate more effectively about government and its purpose. Sponsored by Demos: A Network for Ideas & Action, and the Council for Excellence in Government, Frameworks’ How to Talk about Government Project seeks, as the project sponsors put it, "to help renew the commitment by Americans to government's essential role in achieving the common goals of our society." Achieving this objective necessarily requires a deeper understanding of how Americans currently view government, why they hold the views they do, and the influences that shape those views. Only with such understanding can the negative stereotypes of government be effectively contested and alternative views of government's fundamental public purposes advanced. The goal of this work is not to supplant or substitute popular messages for needed remedies and proven policies. Rather, it is to translate those policies that social policy experts believe will improve our quality of life into ongoing communications that illuminate a positive role for government and build a broader constituency for that vision.
Funders | Recommendations | Research | Products & Tools
Funders for this Project
Support for this initiative, and for Public Works: the Demos Center for the Public Sector, has come from the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, The John D. and Catherine T. McArthur Foundation, the Open Society Institute, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and the Annie E. Casey Foundation.Our Recommendations
A comprehensive strategic message memo, How To Talk About Government: A FrameWorks Message Memo distills the research and explains the recommended strategies to communicate more effectively about government
Our Research
By, or For, the People?: A Meta-Analysis of Public Opinion of GovernmentIn this review of existing public opinion research, FrameWorks sought to understand the shape of public attitudes toward government, in order to identify the dominant frames that influence how Americans think and talk about government.
Mind and Monolith: Findings from the Cognitive Interviews about Government
This report explores the patterns of reasoning that average Americans bring to the topic of government. A key finding from this early qualitative research of semi-structured, one-on-one interviews, is that there the public have two primary associations when thinking about government: they either think of elected officials (the “mind” of government) or of the bureaucracy of government (government as “monolith”).
Thinking Productively About Government, A Supplementary Memo Based On Ten Cognitive Interviews
A second round of cognitive interviews was conducted to explore whether and how the public’s default, narrow conceptions of government (as elected officials or bureaucracy) might be overcome.
Without A Mission: An Analysis of Qualitative Research Exploring Perceptions of Government
The title of this report, Without a Mission, reflects a central finding from the focus
Groups conducted: people have largely forgotten the mission and values inherent in good government. The focus group research also demonstrated that once people are reminded that government exists to act in the best interest of the common good, improve quality of life, preserve public health, and so on, people become more supportive of government and are more willing to be engaged in making government work well for everyone.
Public Structures as a Simplifying Model for Government
In this phase of the research, FrameWorks set out to identify promising explanatory strategies that would Americans think more productively and concretely about the role of government in our lives. The “simplifying models” work tested the proposition that the public’s conceptual picture of government can be made richer and more accurate by way of an explanatory model of what government is and does, and that this improved understanding can lead to increased engagement in and support for government.
Rediscovering the Mission: An Analysis of a Priming Survey Exploring Views of Government
This analysis is based on a priming survey conducted via telephone with 2,603 adults
nationwide. Unlike a typical survey, a priming survey incorporates a series of experiments to cue specific frames and frame elements, and then determines the extent to which exposure to the test language subsequently influences reasoning and attitudes. As this report attests, an effective reframing of government requires 1) elevating the visibility of the mission and values of government (Common Good, Protector of Public Health, etc) and 2) providing the public with a vivid model of the public structures that influence American’s quality of life.
Our Products and Tools
How To Talk About Government is a comprehensive toolkit of our research on Government, containing Frequently Asked Questions, sample op-eds, talking points, and other communications resources on the issue.
