The health of American democracy, as measured by those who study it most closely, has settled into a diminished state – stabilizing after a sharp decline last year, but still well below the levels recorded before the start of Donald Trump’s second term, according to a new survey released on Tuesday.
The findings, by the non-partisan democracy-tracking project Bright Line Watch, which has surveyed hundreds of US scholars at American colleges and universities since 2017, suggest that the erosion of norms detected after Trump’s return to the White House last year has hardened into a new baseline. The public also holds a dim view of American democracy, the most recent survey found, but are sharply divided along partisan lines over how well the system is functioning.
