Three years after a glut of business scandals, Americans have essentially returned to their pre-Enron comfort zone in regard to government regulation of business and industry. In a recent Gallup survey*, a plurality of Americans (40%) say they think there is about the right amount of regulation, a third say there is "too much," and roughly a quarter say there is "too little." Americans were less content only a few years ago.
In September 2001, Americans were more than twice as likely to say there was too much regulation as to say too little. However, all that was about to change. The Justice Department began its criminal investigation of the Enron's bankruptcy in January 2002 and a spate of corporate scandals followed at Adelphia, Tyco, Global Crossing, and WorldCom, among others. The percentage of Americans saying there was too little government regulation of business and industry reached a high point in June of that year.
After the Sarbanes-Oxley Act that tightened accounting reporting requirements was signed into law in late 2002, the surge in support for more government regulation began to subside.
Demographic Differences
Interestingly, men favor less involvement than women do when it comes to regulation of business -- 41% of male respondents say there is too much regulation of business, compared with 28% of female respondents.
The Republican Party is often characterized as anti-regulation and pro-business. Republicans are more likely than Democrats or political independents to say there is too much government regulation of business and industry. Forty-two percent of Republicans say there is too much regulation, compared with 31% of independents and 29% of Democrats.
*Results are based on telephone interviews with 921 national adults, aged 18 and older, conducted Sept. 12-15, 2005. For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points.
