At a time of potential danger to American democratic norms and institutions, it is more urgent than ever for scholars to highlight the risks to our system of government. In this spirit, Bright Line Watch brings together a group of political scientists to monitor democratic practices, their resilience, and potential threats.
Featured report
Threats to democracy and academic freedom after Trump’s second first 100 days
During the first months of Donald Trump’s second presidency, his administration challenged constitutional and democratic norms on a wide range of issues, including the scope of executive power and the authority of courts to check it, individual freedom of expression, due process and habeas corpus, immigration, and academic freedom.
As Trump completed his second first 100 days, we fielded parallel surveys of 760 political scientists (whom we refer to as “experts” below) and a representative sample of 2,000 Americans (whom we refer to as “the public” below). The expert survey was fielded from April 21–28, 2025 and the public survey from April 21–24, 2025.
April 2025
Bright Line Watch in the media
After Trump’s Victory, Republicans Trust the Election System Again
by Charles Homans at The New York Times, 12/17/2024
Why Do So Many Americans Believe Fake News?
by F.D. Flam at Bloomberg, 10/23/2024
‘Same playbook’: Voting falsehoods mire US election by Daniel Funke at AFP, 10/23/2024
Opinion | America Is Playing With Fire by Thomas B. Edsall at The New York Times, 10/23/2024
Republicans and Democrats Believe Their Candidate Will Win—By a Lot
by Stephanie Mencimer at Mother Jones, 10/17/2024
Where Trump Goes, Violence Follows
by Francis Wilkinson at Bloomberg, 10/17/2024
How House Republicans and Fox teed up a major threat to democracy
by Philip Bump at The Washington Post, 7/11/2024
‘The Supreme Court gets the stakes of presidential immunity backward by Philip Bump at The Washington Post, 7/01/2024
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