At the risk of alienating friends, I want to delve, not too deeply, into the now infamous incident at the Red Hen of Lexington, Va. (not to be confused with the unrelated Red Hen of Washington, D.C.). … Three Chicago-area psychologists recently proved experimentally what this incident demonstrates anecdotally: both […] Read more »
‘Transparency’ is the Mother of Fake News
For some time now everyone has been worrying about “fake news” or the world of “alternative fact” and wondering just how and why this unhappy phenomenon has flourished. My take on this question is simple, although I hope not simple-minded: Fake news is in large part a product of the […] Read more »
Bright Line Watch Report on American Democracy
In April 2018, Bright Line Watch conducted its fifth expert survey, and its third public survey, on democracy in the United States. Between April 9 and 22, we surveyed an expert sample of 935 political science faculty at American universities and a nationally representative sample of 2,000 adults. Respondents in […] Read more »
Americans: Optimistic for country, but deep skepticism
For all countries, there is a tension between the idea of what they’d like to be and the reality what they actually are. A new survey from the Pew Research Center finds the gap between America’s idealized vision of itself and its reality is especially wide right now. CONT. Dante […] Read more »
The Public, the Political System and American Democracy
At a time of growing stress on democracy around the world, Americans generally agree on democratic ideals and values that are important for the United States. But for the most part, they see the country falling well short in living up to these ideals, according to a new study of […] Read more »
Authoritarian Warning Survey: Increased threat levels and perceived risk of democratic breakdown
Our expert survey results in March 2018 demonstrate increased threat levels and perceived risk of democratic breakdown. From February to March 2018, ratings worsened on all six dimensions of democratic performance, further reversing the improvement from December to January. Experts rate a 9.1% chance of democratic breakdown in the U.S. […] Read more »