Democracy in the United States is strong, but showing some cracks. That is the conclusion of a new survey of 1,571 political scientists. In contrast with the sense of alarm expressed by some left-leaning thinkers, the political scientists were measured in their responses in this the first of a recurring set of assessments of the health of U.S. democracy, which was just completed.
Almost all said that the United States performed well on some of the most important measures of democracy: free and fair elections, freedom of speech and judicial limits on executive power.
But fewer than two-thirds said other important standards of democracy were being met: no interference with the press and respect for judicial independence by elected branches of government.
"Our concern is bringing academic expertise to the question, 'How strong, or under threat, are basic institutions of American democracy?' " said Susan Stokes, a professor of political science at Yale and an organizer of Bright Line Watch, a new project to study democratic performance in the United States after the 2016 election of President Donald Trump. "That's a nonpartisan question in the same sense that the Constitution is a nonpartisan document."
The survey is the first in a recurring series that will be conducted by Bright Line Watch, a project formed by four researchers — two from Dartmouth and one each from Yale and the University of Rochester — to look at democratic performance in the United States and compare it with other countries.
The researchers said the survey was devised to try to avoid political bias, although before the election three of them wrote an open letter saying Trump threatened democracy. The fourth organizer, who did not sign the letter, is Brendan Nyhan, a professor of government at Dartmouth. Bright Line Watch conducted the survey by contacting 9,820 faculty members from 511 institutions represented at the American Political Science Association meeting.
"It reinforces the story that the U.S. is a high-functioning democracy," Nyhan said. "It's not perfect, but it has stronger and more resilient institutions than other countries that have had democratic backsliding or turns toward authoritarianism."
The survey asked political scientists to rate the importance of 19 characteristics of a democratic government, then rate how well the United States fares on each. The bulk of respondents said the United States fully or mostly met half the democratic standards, and fell short on half.
Two red flags — principles that were deemed important to democracy, but in which the United States is underperforming — have arisen during the Trump administration. They are that government officials do not use public office for private gains, they said, and that elections are free from foreign influence.
The areas in which U.S. democracy is failing — according to more than 80 percent of respondents — concerned civil behavior. Researchers who study how democracies have formed and fallen apart in other parts of the world have said that democracies often erode slowly, and identified various unwritten rules that get broken, such as fair play or an acceptance that the opposition will sometimes win. Examples are giving nominees a confirmation hearing, or graciously accepting election results.
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Explore all your options"They're norms not in the Constitution but the kinds of practices that generate compromise, and if they go away things can unravel pretty quickly," Nyhan said.
© 2017 New York Times