CV NEWS FEED // Amid an American culture that increasingly says it is “dissatisfied” with democracy in the United States, a new yearly Gallup study aims to deep dive into what Americans mean by “democracy” and discover whether democracy is, in fact, faring better than the current numbers suggest.
Gallup Chairman Jim Clifton wrote Jan. 22 that current polling asks only whether Americans are “satisfied or dissatisfied with the way democracy is working in this country,” but he questioned whether Americans know what democracy truly is. In 2024, only 34% of Americans said they were satisfied with democracy in America, while 61% said they were dissatisfied. The numbers lead many to believe that American democracy is “dying,” according to Clifton.
“If it [democracy] is trending down, and it appears to be, where is it now, and where is it going?” he wrote. “I am also concerned that we do not know what ‘democracy’ means to everyday Americans. Does it mean different things to different people?
“The problem might be less about the death of democracy and more about the death of listening. What happens to a democracy when everyday Americans feel they are not being heard?”
Clifton added that democracy is “more about a spirit than a policy or law,” and he hopes to measure Americans’ opinions of true democracy in the US to eventually understand the issues at the root of the dissatisfaction.
He announced that Gallup will partner with the Kettering Foundation to annually audit “American democracy” for the next 100 years in order to bring it back “from decline to renewal.”
“The future of the United States depends upon this project,” Clifton concluded. “The whole world needs a strong American democracy. If you and I don’t fix it, who will?”
