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Contents
The Public Mind

    Type to search. Planned chapters match by title only.

    Volume 1: The great sorting

    Part VI

    Trust, science and democracy

    Confidence in institutions sorted by party, institution by institution, while stated support for democracy held.

    4 written, 4 planned

    This part asks whether confidence in institutions and attitudes toward democratic norms divide by party, and when each gap opened. Confidence in thirteen institutions compares Democrats and Republicans institution by institution, and Tolerance of speech asks whom Americans would allow to speak in public. The planned chapters ask whether trust in the federal government follows the party in the White House, when confidence in science became a partisan divide, whether trust in other people and trust in institutions fell together, whether other democracies show widening gaps, whether stated support for democracy is falling, and how many Americans justify political violence or doubt vote counts in each party.

    Chapters

    1. 6.1

      Confidence in thirteen institutions

      The average gap between Democrats and Republicans in the share with a great deal of confidence in thirteen institutions rose from 4.8 points in 1973-1980 to 6.7 in 2011-2018 and was 9.4 in person in 2022-2024, and the gaps run in both directions.

      DraftIndividualsgss

    2. 6.2

      Trust in government

      Does partisans' trust in the federal government follow the party in the White House?

      PlannedIndividualsanesanes2024

    3. 6.3

      Trust in science

      When did confidence in science become a partisan divide, and what did COVID change?

      PlannedIndividualsgss

    4. 6.4

      Generalized and institutional trust

      Have trust in other people and confidence in institutions fallen together?

      PlannedIndividualsgssanes

    5. 6.5

      Institutional trust outside the United States

      Are partisan or ideological gaps in institutional confidence widening in other democracies?

      PlannedCountrieswvsess

    6. 6.6

      Tolerance of speech

      In 2008 to 2018 Democrats allowed a racist to speak 6.8 points less often than Republicans did, while the party gaps on four speakers that conservatives are expected to object to were within 2.1 points of zero and liberals allowed those four more often than conservatives did.

      DraftIndividualsgss

    7. 6.7

      Support for democracy

      In a fixed set of 39 countries, approval of a strong leader rose by 9.9 points and approval of army rule by 7.6 points between 1995 to 1998 and 2017 to 2023 while support for a democratic system changed by +1.2 points, an average of countries whose survey program stayed the same (−2.8 points) and countries whose program switched (+3.5 points).

      DraftCountrieswvsess

    8. 6.8

      Political violence and democratic norms

      In the 2024 ANES, 17.2% of adult citizens said violence to pursue political goals is justified at least a little, with no party gap that the data separate from zero, while Republicans were more likely than Democrats to expect an inaccurate vote count and to call Trump the legitimate winner of 2020.

      DraftIndividualsanes2024