Democratic Citizenship in the United States: Measuring Democratic Support during the Trump Era

초록

Democracy is often viewed as the most preferred system of government, yet the former election of Donald Trump has made scholars question the commitment of U.S. citizens to democracy. The purpose of this study is to examine support for democracy along party lines during the Trump era. Utilizing a unique measure of democratic citizenship from an original survey conducted in 2018, we find that support across the cognitive, affective, and behavioral dimensions of democratic citizenship is lower among Republicans than Democrats. Moreover, the results of an embedded survey experiment demonstrate that Republicans are more receptive to a political leader who censors the media relative to Democrats. Our results suggest that, while democratic norms may have eroded long before Trump, his 2016 election may have spurred the process and that this may have significant implications for the upcoming 2024 elections.

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