Military, Small Business, Police Still Stir Most Confidence

Americans’ confidence in an array of U.S. societal institutions is holding steady in 2018, with the military continuing to earn the highest confidence of 15 institutions tested. Small business and the police retain their second and third place rankings, and Congress continues to rank last — consistent with the patterns […] Read more »

Mad as Hell: How Anger Diminishes Trust in Government

From President Donald Trump’s tweets, to congressional gridlock, investigations about Russia’s potential meddling in the 2016 presidential election, and, yes, a comedian’s standup routine at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, the political scene is inherently anger-inducing. Indeed, in an era defined by intense partisan divisions where the logic of negative […] 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 »