Our July 2017 survey (the third in a monthly series) confirms a great deal of pessimism about American democracy and increasing concern over the past two months. From June to July, ratings worsened on nearly every dimension, with especially large shifts on elections and political rhetoric. Democracy experts see American […] Read more »
Why Russia Revelations Never Seem To Change Anything
… The Russia story has begun to follow a familiar cycle: A major development or revelation is made public, followed by a flurry of follow-up stories that add new details. Democrats express outrage; a handful of Republicans express concerns. Perhaps a congressional hearing is held. And then the story fades […] Read more »
Why Trump’s Base of Support May Be Smaller Than It Seems
… A new working paper by the Emory University political scientists B. Pablo Montagnes, Zachary Peskowitz and Joshua McCrain argues that people who identify as Republican may stop doing so if they disapprove of Trump, creating a false stability in his partisan approval numbers even as the absolute number of […] Read more »
The Trump Administration at 6 months: The good, the bad, and the ugly
July 20 marks six months into the Donald J. Trump administration. Now seems like a good time to step back from the daily headlines and take stock of the situation. To what extent is the United States experiencing democratic erosion? … What follows is not fully systematic, which makes me […] Read more »
The Demise of the Health Care Bill Shows That Policy Still Matters
Over the past few years, it’s become fashionable among many political experts to deny that policy substance plays much of a role in motivating the electoral choices of the American public. The dominant picture of citizen behavior in contemporary accounts is that of a crude tribalism, in which individuals’ salient […] Read more »
Why some are applauding Donald Trump Jr.’s ‘win at all costs’ attitude
When offered intelligence from a foreign government, Donald Trump Jr. said ‘I love it.’ AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster Daniel M. Shea To many, the revelation that Donald Trump Jr. was anxious to get dirt on Hillary Clinton from the Russians will not come as a surprise. It is but the latest […] Read more »