Fenno's paradox

Fenno's paradox is the belief that people generally disapprove of the United States Congress as a whole, but support the Congressmen from their own Congressional district. It is named after political scientist Richard Fenno who discussed this in his 1978 book Home Style: House Members in Their Districts. Fenno discovered that Congressmen would often run against Congress.

"Fenno's paradox" has also been applied to areas other than politics including public schools. For example, U.S. citizens hate the public school system but like the school their children interact with.