U.S. Democracy

Pew Research Center’s political typology sorts Americans into cohesive, like-minded groups based on their values, beliefs, and views about politics and the political system. Use this tool to compare the groups on some key topics and their demographics.

57% of Americans view voting as “a fundamental right for every adult U.S. citizen and should not be restricted in any way.”

We identified 261 U.S. jurisdictions that have adopted some voting method other than the winner-take-all system most American voters know.

Around two-thirds of adults in Germany, France and the UK say it is important for their national government to make voting compulsory.

Among Republicans, support has declined for allowing early or absentee voting without an excuse and for automatically registering all eligible citizens to vote.

An 85% majority of Democrats say everything possible should be done to make voting easy; 28% of Republicans say this.

Democrats are far more likely than Republicans to say prosecuting those who broke in on Jan. 6 is very important and that penalties for them will likely be less severe than they should be.

Just 20% of U.S. adults cited promoting democracy as a top foreign policy objective, putting it at the bottom of the list of 20 topics polled.

Social media activity by members of Congress changed in notable ways following the rioting at the Capitol by supporters of President Trump.

“Saddened, hurt, disgusted,” one woman in her 50s said. “Never thought I would see anything like this in my life.”