Ahead of the mid-term elections, new results from the Lab highlight three surprising results on support for democratic norm violations. The democratic norms we measure are:
- In-party elected officials should ignore out-party judges;
- In-party should reduce polling places in out-party areas;
- In-party president should use Executive Orders to circumvent out-party control of Congress;
- Government should censor media that attack the out-party more than the in-party;
- When elections are challenged, the in-party should be more loyal to the party than the constitution.
1. Democrats support anti-democratic behavior at levels that are similar to (or exceed) Republicans. Surprisingly, about 8% of Democrats want to reduce voting options for Republicans.
2. Americans who support a norm violation are not looking to subvert democracy wholesale, with most only supporting one or two violations and not a complete rejection of democratic principles.
3. Both Democrats and Republicans dramatically overestimate the extent to which the other side support democratic norms violations. People think things are much worse than they are.
You can always view the results of the America’s Political Pulse tracking poll to see major findings, explore over-time trends, or download top-line results.