If someone asked you to describe democracy in one word, what would you say? An October 2024 survey by the Political Psychology of American Democracy Policy Project, led by UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy Dean David Wilson, asked people just that. Many respondents said, “freedom,” but a lot of others said, “broken.”
In Berkeley Talks episode 220, Berkeley political scientist Henry Brady discusses how we got to a place of growing disillusionment with democracy, where so many mistrust the U.S. government...
The past decade has seen historic challenges for U.S. democracy and an intense focus by scholars on events that seem to signal democratic decline. But new research released today (Dec. 17) finds that a bias toward pessimism among U.S. political scientists often leads to inaccurate predictions about the future threats to democracy.
The research, co-authored by UC Berkeley political scientist Andrew T. Little, offers a possible solution: an approach that aggregates experts’ predictions, finds the middle ground and then reduces the influence of pessimism, leading to the...
Former President Donald Trump has decisively won reelection to the White House, a political outcome that began reverberating around the globe in the hours after the polls closed Tuesday. After polling for weeks had shown a too-close-to-call race that might take days to conclude, Trump’s clear win struck many as a shock.
Analysts will likely spend years working to fully understand the forces that drove his return to power. But on the day after, top UC Berkeley scholars offer a sharp and sometimes unsettling assessment of the dynamics at play. Some cite Trump’s appeal to white voters...
To create a space for students to gather and discuss the high-stakes presidential election and key ballot measures, the Institute of Governmental Studies (IGS) hosted an election night watch party on Tuesday with live coverage of the 2024 general election. The event provided information about the race for the presidency, control of the U.S. House and...
Americans are feeling pessimistic about their political landscape. Polls show that US voters’ top concern involves political extremism and threats to democracy, eclipsing perennial issues like immigration and the economy. Last year, the Pew Research Center...
In Berkeley Talks episode 202, New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik discusses liberalism — what it means, why we need it and the endless dedication it requires to maintain.
Liberal democracy, he said at a UC Berkeley event in April, depends on two pillars: free and fair elections and the...
Liberal democracy, he said at a UC Berkeley event in April, depends on two pillars: free and fair elections and the...