Marc J. Hetherington. Why Trust Matters: Declining Political Trust and the Demise of American Liberalism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 2004. 208 pp. $35.00 (cloth)

Political trust and President Bill Clinton never seemed to be on the same page. Clinton’s 1994 health care reform plan died largely because Republicans successfully tapped Americans’ lack of confidence in the federal government. But when the public had regained some of that trust by the middle of the decade, the still chastened president retreated, declaring in his 1996 State of the Union address that “the era of big government is over.” Other than a late flurry of pro-environmental measures, the rest of Clinton’s presidency revolved around small-bore policies like V-chips, and large-scale efforts to scale backgovernment’s role, such as welfare reform. In this slender but highly useful and timely book Why Trust Matters: Declining Political Trust and the Demise of American Liberalism, Marc Hetherington argues persuasively that Clinton’s initial failure and subsequent retreat are best explained as a historic misreading of the public mood. Republicans were able to use an antigovernment message in 1994 because, as polls showed, the public had little trust in Washington. By 1996, however, political trust had rebounded enough (due largely to the recovering economy) that Clinton had the political capital to push for more progressive, government-based policies had he chosen to do so.