About half of Americans are confident about the future of democracy in the U.S., but nearly two-thirds say the country is not living out its founding principles, according to a recent poll.
The Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll surveyed more than 2,500 registered voters, asking them how confident they were about democracy’s future and how well America’s founding principles were being practiced today. A total of 63% indicated ‘not too well’ or ‘not well at all,’ though more still believed in democracy’s future than not (47% to 44%).
The single-most optimistic group on both questions was individuals who voted for President Donald Trump in the last election. Sixty-three percent said they were confident in the future of American democracy, and 47% thought America’s founding principles were being practiced well today.
Republicans followed not far behind at 61%.
Men were also considerably more optimistic than women on the issue. Fifty-six percent of men indicated they were confident about democracy’s future, compared to just 40% of women.
Beyond political affiliation and gender, however, demographic differences were relatively modest. Confidence tended to be somewhat higher among respondents with higher educational attainment and household incomes.
Conversely, the most pessimistic group was those who voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris, with 56% expressing little confidence in democracy’s future – slightly more than those who didn’t vote at all in 2024. Democrats overall were next, at 53%.
On the principles question, 47% of Trump supporters thought America’s founding principles were being practiced well today, followed by 40% of Republicans, while a soaring 78% of Harris supporters thought the country was not living them out.
Of that 78%, more thought they were being practiced “not at all well” (42%) than “not too well” (30%).
Men, again, showed more optimism than women on the topic. Thirty-six percent of men compared to 26% of women believed America was living out its principles well, while 67% of women believed America was generally failing to practice them compared to 59% of men.
Otherwise, findings were generally consistent across demographic groups.
The topline findings on the founding principles question were similar to those on several other questions in the survey. Sixty percent of respondents also said the U.S. is headed in the wrong direction, while 28% said it is on the right track. Similarly, 60% disapproved of President Donald Trump’s handling of the economy, while 37% approved.
Respondents were not asked directly why they believed the country was headed in the wrong direction, though they did indicate that they thought inflation and the economy were the most important issues the country is facing.
The Center Square partnered with Noble Predictive Insights, which conducted the poll June 1-4, 2026, surveying registered voters nationwide through an opt-in online panel and text-to-web cell phone messages. The survey included 2,585 respondents: 915 Republicans, 1,013 Democrats and 297 True Independents — independents who did not lean toward either major party when asked. The margin of error was ±1.93%.
