The State of Democracy 

By Isabella Warren

The question of whether American democracy is currently in a political polarization or is a thriving first world country is not a subjective question. Rather, American democracy is in a very apparent decline, being driven by extreme and ideological division within our government system, seemingly making more corruption within our representative democracy. Throughout the lectures, we have seen, since the birth of our government, to now, the fluctuations American democracy has gone through. Public trust in our democracy has collapsed to historic lows. 22% of U.S. adults said they trust the federal government to do the right thing just about always (Deane, 2024). This was amongst the lowest measures of public trust in nearly seven decades. While more Americans than ever before are exercising their right to vote, using this analysis, draws together a bigger issue of the failures and ever growing political polarization our democracy is facing, with every American citizen involved.

From this course, we learned about the ever growing political polarization gap that is occurring in our nation, identifying its loss of confidence in public institutions and a higher distrust in the opposite political party. Even with the many political parties America has seen, two active political party organizations, Republican and Democrat stay in the majority. However, affective polarization (Carnegie Corporation, Feb 2025) is increasingly emerging and cohesion of our society feels almost unattainable because of it. Polarization means more than policy disagreement. Rather, it deeply divides both parties. If one actively dislikes another, one is less likely to interact with them, further solidifying separation (Carnegie Corporation, Feb 2025). Throughout the existence of American democracy, parties’ views have switched, meshed together, and switched again. Now, Republicans and Democratic voters not only disagree on plans and policies, but also cannot agree on basic facts (Shearer, 2025). And this divide is only widening as Democrats and Republicans source their news from different media outlets, with media becoming increasingly biased based on their supporting party; and with this, more people are viewing others in opposing parties, in a negative light. A survey done by Pew Research Center showed that 67% of partisan voters are interpreting the same information differently (Shearer, 2025). Because of this, democratic incohesion is being to abrade any chance of cross-partisan agreement.  

As an American, having trust in our government should be a given. We expect them to keep us safe, take our needs into consideration. In the late 1950s, 70% of Americans had trust in the federal government. However, that slid to 30% in the 1970s (Deane, 2025), and while this number fluctuates very frequently, it hasn’t seen its highest point since the 50s. Notably, mistrust of the federal government is widespread in both parties (Deane, 2025). And for a democracy to thrive, its citizens need trust in their government as distrust begins to affect many aspects of life, leading to citizens disengaged from the democratic process, lower voter turnout, increased polarization, and a weakened social fabric (Meel, 2025). Being a representative democracy, U.S. citizens are meant to participate from local to federal government level. We choose who we want to represent us. However, with growing mistrust citizens don’t feel like their input would matter anyways, so why vote? Which, in turn, makes the system less representative and gives more influence towards the people already in power, deepening the wealth gap. When trust isn’t there, political polarization begins to deepen, and the governing system becomes more dysfunctional, something we are seeing unfold today.

Though political polarization and mistrust in government is at an all time high, the election of 2024, the overall turnout of eligible voters in the 2024 general election was 63.7% (Ballotpedia, 2024). Though this was lower than the 2020, it was higher than every election since 2004. Meaning, many U.S. citizens actively are trying to turn our state of democracy around in any way they can. With voter turnout increasing, it creates a glimmer of hope that more Americans will become involved in politics to help restore our democracy to a better place. We learned in class that local elections voting makes more of a difference than voting in a national election as swing states typically decide presidential elections, and are decided by the electoral government. However, higher voter turnout indicates a more deeply invested nation in our government where as a collective, we get to exercise our right to vote. And with this engagement and the ability to keep engagement high, a way to change the declining state of our democracy is attainable.

The trajectory of where our representative democracy seems to be taking, is leading us down a darker path of deepened mistrust and political polarization, it is hard to find a positive outlook on the state of democracy. While all of the topics we discussed in class, I had a good chunk of knowledge on, with our class discussions and lectures, my perception on American democracy did not necessarily changed, but it did strengthen what I knew about the world of American politics, creating a feeling of being politically aware, something all Americans should be. Being able to hear other people’s opinions really solidified, for me, just how important our voices do matter and if we are all able to respectfully share our opinions, American democracy might be able to heal from the deep wounds it has acquired over the almost 250 years of its birth.