After the Storm: Racial Differences in Allegiance to America’s Democracy

Abstract

Many observers of American politics despair over the possible consequences for the health of America’s democratic political culture of the 2020 presidential election, the January insurrection, and the Trump impeachment and acquittal. The specific fear is that popular support for American democratic institutions has been eroded and compromised. Based on a nationally representative survey with a large oversample of African Americans, I address the hypotheses that a) support for democratic institutions is not widespread, b) that significant inter-group differences in support exist, c) that awareness and assessment of these events are connected to democratic support, and d) that support for these institutions is grounded in more elemental and obdurate democratic values. After finding that African Americans extend significantly less support to America’s democratic institutions, I consider whether reverence for these institutions was undermined by the election and its aftermath. My findings cautiously suggest that the election/insurrection events may not have changed many American minds, Black or White; instead, it appears that those already low in support for democratic values were the ones most receptive to elite canards regarding the legitimacy of the election and its outcome. On all aspects of this analysis, I find strong inter-racial differences.