Americans May Be Turning Against Representative Democracy Along With Commitment to Democratic Values

In The News Piece in The UnPopulist
April 18, 2024

Oscar Pocasangre and Lee Drutman's report "Democracy Hypocrisy" was featured in this essay on The UnPopulist.

True, as noted above, a majority of Americans still say nice things about representative democracy in the abstract—a point that the Democracy Fund report, Democracy Hypocrisy, corroborates. The report’s authors observe that in all four of the relevant Democracy Fund surveys between 2017 and 2022, more than 80% of Americans said having a democratic political system is fairly or very good, and more than 70% said, “Democracy is preferable to any other kind of government.” The study also echoes the Pew report’s finding that only a quarter or less of Americans show interest in rule by the military or by a "strong leader” freed from democratic checks and balances.
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State of Global Democracy