The Health of American Democracy: Comparing Perceptions of Experts and the American Public

Given widespread concern about the possible erosion of democracy in the United States, Bright Line Watch has conducted expert surveys since early 2017 asking thousands of professional political scientists to identify the dimensions of democracy they see as most important and to rate how well the U.S. is performing on […] Read more »

Slim Majority Against Government Pushing Traditional Values

Given a choice, more Americans prefer that the government not advance any values (51%) than say it should “promote traditional values” (45%). This marks the third consecutive year that the public has favored government neutrality on advancing values. Before 2008, Americans consistently favored government promotion of traditional values. CONT. Megan […] Read more »

Majority in U.S. Say Federal Government Has Too Much Power

In the first year of Donald Trump’s presidency, a majority (55%) of Americans believe the federal government has too much power, down slightly from the last several years of the Obama presidency, when it hovered near 60%. Roughly a third of Americans think the government has the right amount of […] Read more »