December 15, 2023
Confidence in American democracy remains low. Most citizens believe democracy could be in danger depending on who wins next year’s presidential election, including a majority of both Democrats and Republicans.
For several years, the public has lacked confidence in the functioning of democracy. Fifty-one percent say it doesn’t work well, 40% think it works somewhat well, and only 8% say it works very or extremely well. These results were similar when the question was asked previously, notably October 2022while 9% say that democracy works very or extremely well and October 2020while 14% said it worked well.
People believe the stakes are high for the upcoming election. Sixty-two percent of adults think democracy could be in danger depending on who wins the presidency in November. Roughly equal shares believe that democracy is already so broken that elections don’t matter (19%) and that democracy is strong enough to withstand the outcome (18%).
Fifty-five percent of Republicans think democracy could be in danger depending on who wins in 2024, as do 72% of Democrats. Republicans are more likely to think democracy is already broken than Democrats (23% vs. 10%).
Partisans on both sides say each party’s front-runner poses a risk to the health of democracy. Eighty-seven percent of Democrats believe that if Trump is re-elected in 2024, he will weaken democracy, and 82% of Republicans say the same about Biden. However, Republicans are more likely to believe that if Trump were re-elected in 2024, democracy would be strengthened compared to Democrats’ vision of a Biden re-election.
People believe the outcome of the 2024 election will also have serious stakes on a range of issues. Three-quarters of adults say the election outcome will be important for the economy, and about two-thirds think it will have important consequences for government spending, the future of democracy in the United States, and immigration .
Democrats are more likely than Republicans to view the 2024 election as extremely or very important to the future of climate change (65% vs. 24%), issues related to race and ethnicity (64% vs. 33%), abortion policy (76% vs. 47%), the future of democracy (76% vs. 61%), health care (67% vs. 55%), and gun policy on fire (62% versus 51%). Republicans are more likely than Democrats to expect the election to have a big impact on border security (78% vs. 53%), crime (68% vs. 47%), government spending (77% against 63%), immigration. (76% versus 63%) and the economy (82% versus 73%).
The national poll was conducted from November 30 to December 4, 2023 using the AmeriSpeak® panel, the probability panel of NORC at the University of Chicago. Online and telephone interviews via landlines and cell phones were conducted with 1,074 adults. The margin of sampling error is +/- 4.0 percentage points.
