Why do americans hold unrealistically high expectations of government and its ability to institute reform?

 The correct answer is :  Most political change is incremental. 150 years ago the federal government had fewer responsibilities and citizens had few expectations. State governments were more powerful. When the nation and the economy grew in size, citizens' expectations increased and the federal government acquired more responsibilities. FDR's New Deal was an example of this. Changes in the population have also created controversy. Americans have high and often unrealistic expectations of the government, but often do not appreciate how much their government really does for them. The lack of confidence of the Americans in the institutions also explains part of the apathy evidenced in the electorate.

after the civil war, and with the termination of slavery, the south was faced with a big problem; what was supposed to happen and how they were supposed to deal with the freedom and the rights that black people and freed slaves had gained as a result of the north defeating the south and forcing the end of slavery. first, most, if not all, of the workforce of the south came from slaves and they did not have an option to replace the loss of said workforce. second, particularly in the south, people were convinced that black people were lesser, less intelligent, less capable and less smart than whites. this posed a huge problem for them. also, southerners were faced with another issue; freed slaves now had a say in how their lives would be lived and the right to politically choose the way they would be governed. people in the south did not want to accept this, none of this and this opposition and the conflicts that arose from it, not to mention the afereffects of the war, forced the congress of the time to enact and enforce the reconstruction plans that had been proposed by president andrew johnson.

health and medicine because people are dying from not being healthy or not strong enough medicine