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Government

No matter who is governing, there is always negativity around the idea of government. Good framing makes the need for good government clear.

Anti-government sentiment undermines good policies and better politics. Advocates across social issues need effective ways to frame the role of government.

Common catchphrases like “taxpayer dollars” reflect a “vending machine” view of government, suggesting citizens who put money in should expect an instant, proportional, direct benefit. “Safety net” language reinforces the idea that the goal of government is to catch those who fall, not to promote a shared, common good. A different story can spark different mindsets. Talking about shared resources and needs and reframing budgets and taxes in terms of long-term generational exchange helps.

Explore these ideas and more in the resources here.

Featured Work

Frame Testing Recommendations

How to Talk About Government: A FrameWorks Message Memo

This MessageMemo distills insights from a set of innovative, inter-related studies, and recommends ways to communicate more effectively about government.
Report

How to Talk About Budgets and Taxes: A FrameWorks MessageMemo

This MessageMemo provides advocates with a communications map for improving the public's understanding of the linked topics of budgets and taxes.
External article

Shutdowns reinforce the widely held belief that ‘government is broken’

When the federal government shuts down, many problematic repercussions follow. But there is another, more insidious effect of shutdowns: They hurt Americans’ views of government, of the public...

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Toolkit

Talking About Budgets and Taxes

This toolkit features a compendium of research on how Americans think about budgets and taxes, and how to increase public support for policies that support reforms to the budgeting process and tax...
Report

An Ounce of Prevention: Experimental Research in Strategic Frame Analysis to Identify Effective Issue Frames for Public Budgeting and Taxation Systems

This report evaluates whether different ways of communicating can bridge the gap between expert and lay understandings of US budgeting and taxation systems.
Report

Having Our Say: Getting Priority, Transparency and Agency into the Public Discourse on Budgets and Taxes

This second phase of research uses group discussions to test potential reframes that were generated in the cognitive interviews. This method helps to show how Americans negotiate these issues in...
Report

Like Mars to Venus: The Separate and Sketchy Worlds of Budgets and Taxes

This report uses cognitive interviews to investigate Americans’ thinking about budgets and taxes- both as separate issues and as they relate to each other.
Report

By, or for, the People? A Meta-analysis of Public Opinion of Government

In this review of existing public opinion research, FrameWorks sought to understand the shape of public attitudes toward government.
Report

How to Talk About Government

This Message Brief distills research findings and framing strategies, and offers a summary of key communications strategies on the issue.
Toolkit

How to Talk About Government

Welcome to How to Talk About Government, a toolkit compendium of research and applications on how Americans think about government.
Frame Testing Recommendations

How to Talk About Government: A FrameWorks Message Memo

This MessageMemo distills insights from a set of innovative, inter-related studies, and recommends ways to communicate more effectively about government.
Report

“Public Structures” as a Simplifying Model for Government

In this phase of the research, FrameWorks set out to identify promising strategies that make Americans think more productively about the role of government.
Report

Priming More Productive Views of Government: Survey Experiment Results

Negative views of government are no surprise. But the effects of different frames might be.
Report

Without a Mission: An Analysis of Qualitative Research Exploring Perceptions of Government

The title of this report, Without a Mission, reflects a central finding: people have largely forgotten the mission and values inherent in good government.
Report

Thinking Productively About Government: Supplementary Memo Based on Ten Cognitive Interviews

This study takes a peek into American public thinking about government -and how it might be expanded.