Americans widely pessimistic about democracy in US, poll finds
- American poll respondents provide views on the state of democracy in the US
- Findings illustrate widespread political alienation in the deeply polarised country
Only about one in 10 US adults give high ratings to the way democracy is working in the United States or how well it represents the interests of most Americans, according to a new poll from Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Majorities of adults say US laws and policies do a poor job of representing what most Americans want on issues ranging from the economy and government spending to gun policy, immigration and abortion.
The poll shows 53 per cent say Congress is doing a bad job of upholding democratic values, compared with just 16 per cent who say it’s doing a good job.
The findings illustrate widespread political alienation as a polarised country limps out of the pandemic and into a recovery haunted by inflation and fears of a recession. In interviews, respondents worried less about the machinery of democracy – voting laws and the tabulation of ballots – and more about the outputs.
Overall, about half the country – 49 per cent – say democracy is not working well in the United States, compared with 10 per cent who say it’s working very or extremely well and 40 per cent only somewhat well.
About half also say each of the political parties is doing a bad job of upholding democracy, including 47 per cent who say that about Democrats and even more – 56 per cent – about Republicans.