{"id":450682,"date":"2020-09-11T12:55:45","date_gmt":"2020-09-11T16:55:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=450682"},"modified":"2020-09-14T15:55:50","modified_gmt":"2020-09-14T19:55:50","slug":"democratic-indicators-plummet-amid-racial-justice-protests-and-pandemic-450682","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/democratic-indicators-plummet-amid-racial-justice-protests-and-pandemic-450682\/","title":{"rendered":"Watchdog report: US democratic indicators plummet amid racial justice protests and pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Latest Bright Line Watch analysis finds erosion \u201cacross the board\u201d on measures of democratic principles and how well the US is abiding by them.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

The health of democracy in the United States has reached its lowest point since an academic watchdog group of political scientists began tracking its performance in 2017.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

Latest Bright Line Watch Survey<\/h2>\n

Read the latest (August 2020) Bright Line Watch expert survey<\/a>.<\/p>\n

More about Bright Line Watch<\/h2>\n

Originally founded by the University of Rochester\u2019s Gretchen Helmke and three other political scientists\u2014Brendan Nyhan and John Carey of Dartmouth College, and Susan Stokes of the University of Chicago, Bright Line Watch<\/a> is a nonpartisan initiative to conducts regular surveys designed to gauge the overall stability and performance of American democracy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Results of the August 2020 survey<\/a> from Bright Line Watch<\/a>\u2014a political science research project of faculty at the University of Rochester<\/a>, the University of Chicago<\/a>, and Dartmouth College<\/a>\u2014show a small but perceptible drop in the experts\u2019 rating of the overall quality of US democracy.<\/p>\n

During the first two years of Bright Line Watch expert surveys, from February 2017 to March 2019, average scores were generally in the high 60s on a 0\u2013100 scale, with a decline in the period before the 2018 midterm elections and then an uptick afterward in March 2019. Since then, however, three consecutive expert surveys have shown successive declines, driving ratings of US democracy to a new low of 61 on the Bright Line Watch scale in their latest survey.<\/p>\n

While there are a few bright spots in the latest report, the overall picture is cause for consternation, notes Gretchen Helmke<\/a>, professor of political science at the University of Rochester.<\/p>\n

Since February 2017, the nonpartisan group of political scientists<\/a>, which includes Helmke and Mitchell Sanders<\/a> \u201997 (PhD) of Meliora Research, has been surveying the American public, as well as colleagues in academia, in an effort to gauge the relative well-being of the nation\u2019s democracy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is concerning that there has been so much erosion across the board on so many principles,\u201d says Helmke. \u201cWe have been seeing growing gaps for a while between how important a principle is and how it is performing, particularly in areas related to institutional limits on the government and accountability. But the latest survey showed us just how much ground has been lost since March.\u201d<\/p>\n

In one way or another, COVID-19 has touched billions of lives around the globe and cast a pall over US politics. To date, more than 185,000 people have died in the US alone. Campaigns for the presidency, Congress, and other public offices are taking place in a largely virtual medium. At the same time, since Memorial Day, when George Floyd died while in the custody of Minneapolis police officers, protests over Floyd\u2019s death and the government\u2019s response to the protests have highlighted challenges to democratic governance. The survey was completed before the police shooting of Jacob Blake on August 23 in Kenosha, Wisconsin.<\/p>\n

In its 11th survey of experts<\/a>, the academic watchdog group asked political scientists across the country how US democracy fared during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

The 776 responding experts, polled between July 27 and August 17, see the overall quality of US democracy continuing on its downward trend, reaching the lowest point since Bright Line Watch began its surveys in early 2017.<\/p>\n

Key findings of Bright Line Watch\u2019s August 2020 survey<\/h2>\n