Our expert survey results in May-June 2018 demonstrate significantly increased threat levels compared to April, with ratings worsening on all six dimensions of democratic performance. … The results give us clear reasons to be concerned about the future of American democracy. May and June saw increases in threat levels across […] Read more »
Gauging the Level of Over Time Issue Polarization among Partisans
The question of the extent and nature of polarization in the American public has received much attention from political science. Though not always debated on this front, polarization on issue and policy opinion is a nuanced subject and sometimes suffers from limitations from survey data. For example, survey questions on […] Read more »
Racism and authoritarianism go hand in hand
Two features of American politics are omnipresent in the current media landscape. First, Donald Trump’s rhetoric regarding nonwhites routinely betrays a dehumanizing prejudice. Second, there has been a proliferation of what Duke University law professor Jedediah Purdy sardonically labels “crisis-of-democracy literature,” involving Americans’ apparent rebuke of democratic norms. Neither social […] Read more »
Why are Democratic voters more approving of compromise than Republicans?
James Glaser, Tufts University and Jeffrey Berry, Tufts University At a time when political division is heightened and the parties in Washington are deeply polarized, it is worth asking whether there is any payoff for politicians to work together. Will they be rewarded by their constituents for getting things done, […] Read more »
Here’s how political science explains the GOP’s obsession with civility
On Wednesday, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the surprise Democratic primary winner from New York’s 14th Congressional District, said, “[T]he Democratic Party is a big tent and there are so many ways to be a Democrat.” In this, she is correct. Democrats have been, sometimes uncomfortably, forced to find connections and common cause […] Read more »
Does incivility hurt democracy? Here’s what political science can tell us.
Last Saturday, the owner of the Red Hen in Lexington, Va., asked White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to leave her restaurant. Since that and other incidents, many have been debating the role civility should have in politics. The Washington Post editorial board warned that justifying certain types of […] Read more »