Client or Primary Investigator: Seongjoon Ahn, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science

Project Manager: Cassidy Branch

Project Start: June 1, 2026

Project Description: This study will use a web survey to link conceptions of democracy to measures of individual’s levels of institutional trust, satisfaction with democracy, and affective polarization. The project also examines how democratic priorities relate to broader patterns of legitimacy and polarization, providing both scholarly analysis and public facing insights on Americans’ democratic priorities heading into the 2026 midterm elections. The project addresses three research questions: 1) How do Americans resolve tradeoffs between competing democratic principles? 2) Do individuals’ conceptions of democracy predict how individuals resolve these tradeoffs? 3) Do overall patterns in Americans’ conceptions of democracy change across time?

This project is part of Surveying the Social World research incubation initiative. 

Services Provided: Web Panel Survey, IRB Support, Survey Programming & Testing