Faith in Democracy

Kim Hart at Axios:

Just 51% of Americans said they have faith in democracy, and 37% say they have lost faith in democracy, according to a new Axios/SurveyMonkey poll conducted in late October.

Why it matters: It suggests that recent political turmoil has caused people to doubt the very foundation of American society, particularly leading up to election day.

Since October 2016, just before the last presidential election, SurveyMonkey has tracked Americans' views toward democracy.

What's happening: Despite the political turbulence over the past two years, Americans' faith in democracy has been relatively stable — with two exceptions.

• Just before heading to the polls in 2016, 52% of voters had faith in democracy.That number grew from pre-election numbers (by 8 percentage points)immediately following the election in November 2016 and in February 2017...

•  One year ago, in October 2017, faith in democracy dropped by 7 percentage points and has held fairly steady since then.

• The other half of Americans have either lost faith in democracy or never had faith in it to begin with, according to the poll.