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
Accelerated transgressions in the second Trump presidency
Since regaining the presidency, Donald Trump is already challenging America’s constitutional order. In the weeks since he took office, Trump launched a blizzard of executive actions that have not only shifted policy, but, in many cases, challenged key principles of contemporary American democracy.
In this context, we fielded parallel surveys of 520 political scientists (whom we refer to as “experts” below), 40 experts on online misinformation (whom we refer to “misinformation experts” below), and a representative sample of 2,750 Americans (whom we refer to as “the public” below). These surveys, which we refer to as the February 2025 survey, were fielded from January 31 — February 10, 2025.
February 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
Bright Line Watch is grateful for funding from these organizations
