{"id":426792,"date":"2020-04-23T12:14:51","date_gmt":"2020-04-23T16:14:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=426792"},"modified":"2020-04-23T12:16:22","modified_gmt":"2020-04-23T16:16:22","slug":"perception-of-us-democracy-tanks-after-trump-impeachment-426792","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/perception-of-us-democracy-tanks-after-trump-impeachment-426792\/","title":{"rendered":"Perception of US democracy tanks after Trump impeachment"},"content":{"rendered":"

While President Donald Trump\u2019s impeachment gripped the country in late 2019 and early 2020, the long-term consequences of his trial and acquittal for American democracy remain yet unclear. What\u2019s clear already, however, is that both the public\u2019s and political experts\u2019 perceptions of the health of US democracy clearly declined during this period.<\/p>\n

Those are the findings of an academic watchdog group that conducted its latest survey<\/a> between March 12 and April 15.<\/p>\n

Since February 2017,\u00a0Bright Line Watch<\/strong><\/a>, a nonpartisan group of political scientists<\/a>, has been surveying the American public as well as colleagues in academia in an effort to gauge the relative well-being of the nation\u2019s democracy. The group, which includes Ä¢¹½´«Ã½ political science professor\u00a0Gretchen Helmke<\/strong><\/a>, and\u00a0Mitchell Sanders<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u201997 (PhD)\u00a0of Meliora Research, has been monitoring US democratic practices and potential threats.<\/p>\n

The Bright Line Watch surveys consist of a two-part list of more than 25 statements of democratic principles that contribute to the overall stability and performance of American democracy. The first part asks citizens and experts to rate these democratic principles on how vital they are for democracy. The second part asks both citizens and experts how the US is performing on each of these principles.<\/p>\n

Among the experts, the latest survey recorded 63.4 on a 0\u2013100 scale of US democratic performance\u2014 the worst overall rating since Bright Line Watch started asking these questions in 2017.<\/p>\n

During the last year, the experts\u2019 ratings dropped on 15 of the 27 surveyed democratic principles, while none showed improvement. The biggest declines in performance relate to accountability, institutional checks and balances, and the rights and protections of individuals.<\/p>\n

Ratings among the public show a similar decline, dropping from 54.3 in March 2019 to 49.3 a year later. Both expert and public evaluations mark substantial declines from a peak after the 2018 elections, which the team\u00a0attributes\u00a0to \u201can apparent increase in legal and political checks on President Trump following the 2018 midterm election, including investigations into the administration and the President\u2019s associates by law enforcement officials and Congress.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"line
Ratings of the health of US democracy by experts and the public on a 0\u2013100 scale. The figure shows average values across survey waves. (Ä¢¹½´«Ã½ graphic \/ MIke Osadciw)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Meanwhile, the recent declines continue the trend already observed in the group\u2019s October 2019 survey. That drop came after the whistleblower report on Trump\u2019s Ukraine phone call.<\/p>\n

Worth noting is that the decrease in public ratings is driven by Americans who disapprove of the president. For this group, assessments of democracy declined between March and October 2019 and remained low in the most recent survey. By contrast, ratings were stable among Trump approvers, the team writes in its latest survey.<\/p>\n

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What is Bright Line Watch?<\/h2>\n

One of the greatest threats to democracy is the idea that it is unassailable. That\u2019s the tagline of the nonpartisan Bright Line Watch initiative originally founded by Ä¢¹½´«Ã½\u2019s Gretchen Helmke and three other political scientists\u2014Brendan Nyhan <\/a> and John Carey<\/a> of Dartmouth College, and Susan Stokes<\/a> of the University of Chicago\u2014that gauges the health of US democracy at regular intervals.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Key findings of Bright Line Watch\u2019s March\/April 2020 survey<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The survey found that experts:<\/p>\n