If it's in the News, it's in our Polls. Public opinion polling since 2003.

POLITICS

66% Believe U.S. Has Too Much Government Power, Too Little Freedom

From the beginning of the nation, Americans have recognized a necessary tension between giving power to government and maintaining individual freedom. The Federalist Papers, written to advocate ratification of the Constitution, noted that when creating a government “the people must cede to it some of their natural rights in order to vest it with requisite powers.”

Today, however, 66% of Likely U.S. Voters believe that there is too much government power and too little individual freedom. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just eight percent (8%) believe the opposite to be true. Twenty-two percent (22%) think the balance is about right.  (To see survey question wording, click here.)

(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.

The national survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on July 7-8, 2012 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

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