Panetta 2014 Institute Survey Shows Students Increasingly Disenchanted With National Leaders, Yet Interested in Elective Office

The Panetta Institute’s 2014 survey showed United States college students turning away from international issues and entanglements and increasingly dissatisfied with the country’s political leadership, yet more inclined than in the past to consider running for public office themselves, particularly at the state or local level.

Only 39 percent of students in the survey said they were satisfied with America’s political leadership while 60 percent were dissatisfied – a major shift from five years earlier, at the start of the Obama administration, when 73 percent said they were satisfied with the country’s political leadership and 25 percent were dissatisfied.

At the same time, student interest in someday holding a federal elective office climbed to 29 percent in this year’s survey, up from 25 percent in 2012, and to 38 percent for running for state or local office, up from 30 percent two years ago.