A new report on American democracy: How are we doing?

A Washington Post article reported on Lee Drutman's Democracy Fund Voter Study Group research findings. 

The Democracy Fund Voter Study Group, which describes itself as a “collaboration of nearly two dozen analysts and scholars from across the political spectrum,” is out with an important new study on American democracy that looks at attitudes about democracy, military rule and strong-man politics. There is some good news, but there are also red flags. “This important report is the most comprehensive study of America’s attitudes to democracy is the Trump era,” said Yascha Mounk, an expert at Harvard University on authoritarian threats to democracies.

The authors find:
If given a direct choice, the overwhelming majority of Americans choose democracy. In fact, on each of the five questions we asked, three quarters or more of all respondents provide at least some support for democracy, and half or more express support for the strongest pro-democratic option. By contrast, depending on the question, between an eighth and a quarter of respondents provide an answer that does not support democracy. Moreover, we find evidence that conflicts with two key findings that have recently raised alarm bells about the state of democracy: (a) We do not find that public support for democracy in the U.S. is declining. (b) Nor do we find higher support among young people for an authoritarian political system.

That’s heartening, but democracy is holding on by a slim majority, with only 54 percent who “consistently express a pro-democratic position.” They find that “almost half of our respondents do not support democracy on at least one of the five survey questions. . . . Notably, 29 percent of respondents show at least some support for either a ‘strong leader’ or ‘army rule.'”