Security First. Since shortly after 9/11, Pew Research has asked whether people’s greater concern is that anti-terror policies will go too far in restricting civil liberties, or that they won’t go far enough in adequately protecting the country. The balance of opinion has consistently favored protection. Most recently, in 2010, 47% said they were more concerned that government policies “have not gone far enough to adequately protect the country,” while 32% said they were more concerned that “they have gone too far in restricting the average person’s civil liberties.”

But Fewer See Need to Sacrifice Civil Liberties. Yet fewer Americans think it will be necessary to sacrifice civil liberties to combat terrorism than did so shortly after the 9/11 attacks. In a poll conducted in 2011, shortly before the 10th anniversary of 9/11, 40% said that “in order to curb terrorism in this country it will be necessary for the average person to give up some civil liberties,” while 54% said it would not. A decade earlier, in the aftermath of 9/11 and before the passage of the Patriot Act, opinion was nearly the reverse (55% necessary, 35% not necessary).

Track Terrorists – Not Me. The public has never liked the idea of the government monitoring their personal phone calls or emails. In the 9/11 anniversary survey, just 29% favored “the U.S. government monitoring personal telephone calls and emails” in order to curb terrorism. It drew less support than the other anti-terror tactics asked about in the survey.

Bush’s Domestic Surveillance Program. In late 2005, news that President George W. Bush authorized the National Security Agency to monitor phone calls and emails –without court permission – stirred intense civil liberties concerns, especially among Democrats. From early 2006 through early 2009, public support for the program ranged from 48% to 54%. The question asked if it was generally right or wrong “for the government to monitor telephone and e-mail communications of Americans suspected of having terrorist ties without first obtaining permission from the courts.” There were consistently wide partisan differences on views of this program: in February 2008, nearly twice as many Republicans (74%) as Democrats (39%) favored the phone and email monitoring.

Privacy Concerns: It’s Not Just Government

What is often overlooked in the debate over government surveillance of private communications is the widespread public concern over the amount of personal information businesses are collecting. In our 2012 political values survey, 64% said they were concerned that “the government is collecting too much information about people like me.” Yet 74% expressed this concern about business corporations.

Concern that business corporations are collecting too much personal information crosses party lines. In addition, Republicans have become much more concerned about possible privacy intrusions by the government than they were during Bush’s presidency (72% in 2012, 39% in 2007).

Consider a survey on trust conducted earlier this year for the AARP Bulletin. Not surprisingly, people said they trusted their nearest and dearest (spouses, friends, neighbors) the most, while such usual suspects as reporters, labor unions, CEOs and used-car salespeople were at or near the bottom.

But compared with people ages 50 and older, younger adults were significantly more likely to trust public officials (judges, the President, their member of Congress), labor unions and, oddly enough, their in-laws, while they were less likely than the older group to trust their bankers or their neighbors. 

Those findings parallel a 2011 Pew Research survey that asked people how much they trusted the information they got from various sources. In that study, young adults were significantly more likely than the general population to trust the Obama administration (61% versus 50%), federal agencies (53% versus 44%) and even Congress (45% versus 37%), though they were less likely to trust information from corporations (34% versus 41%).

Young adults also are more likely to trust what the federal government does. According to a January 2013 Pew Research survey, 35% of 18- to 29-year-olds said they trusted the federal government to do the right thing all or most of the time; less than a quarter of all other age groups said so. And only 22% of 18- to 29-year-olds said the federal government posed a major threat to their personal rights and freedoms, the lowest level of any age group.

Sociologists, economists and other researchers care a lot about what they call “social trust” — the belief that people are by and large honest and can be relied on to carry out their obligations. As James S. Coleman argued as early as 1988, social trust is an essential component of social capital: Everything from simple markets to complex governmental structures works more smoothly and efficiently when people trust each other to do the right thing (or at least most people most of the time).

As Americans head to the polls this November, their values and basic beliefs are more polarized along partisan lines than at any point in the past 25 years. Unlike in 1987, when this series of surveys began, the values gap between Republicans and Democrats is now greater than gender, age, race or class divides.

Overall, there has been much more stability than change across the 48 political values measures that the Pew Research Center has tracked since 1987. But the average partisan gap has nearly doubled over this 25-year period — from 10% in 1987 to 18% in the new study.

Nearly all of the increases have occurred during the presidencies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

Looking ahead to the 2012 election, the largest divides between committed supporters of Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are over the scope and role of government in the economic realm.

These are among the principal findings of the latest Pew Research Center American Values survey, conducted April 4-15, 2012, among 3,008 adults nationwide. The values project, which began in 1987 and has been updated 14 times since then, tracks a wide range of the public’s fundamental beliefs. These questions do not measure opinions about specific policy or political questions, but rather the underlying values that ultimately shape those opinions.

Read the full report which includes detailed findings on these subjects:

• Understanding the Partisan Divide Over American Values
• Demographics and American Values
• Values about Economic Inequality and Individual Opportunity
• Values about Government and the Social Safety Net
• Values about Business, Wall Street and Labor
• Religious and Social Values
• Values about Foreign Policy and Terrorism
• Values about Immigration and Race
• Trends in Party Affiliation

See also a slideshow summarizing the survey’s key findings and an interactive database containing the full history of the values studies.

The favorable rating for the federal government has fallen to just 33%; while nearly twice as many (62%) have an unfavorable view, according to the latest survey by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, conducted April 4-15. By contrast, ratings of state governments remain in positive territory, with 52% offering a favorable and 42% and unfavorable opinion of their state government. Local governments are viewed positively by roughly a two-to-one margin.

Ten years ago, roughly two thirds of Americans offered favorable assessments of all three levels of government: federal, state and local.

Read the full report for more findings on ratings of governments, including:

• Partisan breakdowns on views toward the federal, state and local governments
• Ratings of federal and state governments on specific areas of performance