How strong are American political institutions?
June 4, 2024
ANN ARBOR — The United States government relies on the strength of its political institutions to govern effectively. But what if Americans lose faith in those institutions?
Many political commentators have argued that the 2020 election gave us the chance to see that question play out, given the actions of Donald Trump and his supporters. But Dr. James Gibson, the Sidney W. Souers Professor of Government at Washington University in St. Louis, isn’t so sure. In the 2024 edition of the Miller-Converse Lecture series, he argues that Americans actually haven’t lost much faith in their political institutions, if any.
Gibson, continuing the legacy of Warren Miller and Phil Converse both through his participation in the lecture series that bears their names and in his political research, conducted a series of nationally representative surveys examining changes in political attitudes around the 2020 election, and the results may surprise you.
Listen to what Dr. Gibson found in the latest edition of The Abstract, available here and on the podcast app of your choice.