Political Ideals & Systems

Large ideological divides persist on views of tradition, national pride and discrimination, especially in the U.S.

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

Here are five key findings about people’s attitudes toward systemic reforms in the U.S., France, Germany and the UK.

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

In the U.S., concerns about political corruption are especially widespread. Two-in-three Americans agree that the phrase “most politicians are corrupt” describes their country well.

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.

Majorities in all three countries said in a fall 2020 survey that the U.S. system needs either major changes or to be completely reformed.

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.”