One of the greatest threats to democracy is the idea that it is unassailable.

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

Violence, redis­trict­ing, and demo­c­ra­t­ic norms in Trump’s America

In recent months, the Trump admin­is­tra­tion has continued to challenge executive branch norms as well as legal and con­sti­tu­tion­al limits on the powers of the pres­i­den­cy, including dra­mat­i­cal­ly expanding the capacity and activ­i­ties of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and deploying the military to Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. A Republican effort to change con­gres­sion­al district maps to gain five seats in the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2026 election was enacted in Texas, prompting California Democrats to develop a redis­trict­ing plan to offset those losses. Most recently, the con­ser­v­a­tive activist and com­men­ta­tor Charlie Kirk was shot and killed during a public event at a Utah uni­ver­si­ty, prompting a nation­wide debate over political violence and free speech. 

In this context, we fielded parallel surveys of 703 political science faculty at American colleges and uni­ver­si­ties (whom we refer to as “experts” below) and a rep­re­sen­ta­tive sample of 2,750 Americans (whom we refer to as “the public” below). The expert survey was fielded from September 5–17, 2025 and the public survey from September 5–16, 2025.

October 2025

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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

Bright Line Watch is grateful for funding from these organizations

William & Flora Hewlett Foundation

info@brightlinewatch.org