Poll: Half of Americans Think Democracy is Failing

Just one tenth of Americans think our democracy is functioning very well right now and more than half think that Congress is failing to uphold Democratic values according to a new poll out Friday.

The poll, from the AP and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, found that a majority of American adults believe Congress is failing to uphold democratic values (53%) and nearly half (48%) believe the laws being passed in the United States fail to reflect what most Americans want.

In all 49% of Americans believe democracy is not working well.

Sixty-five percent of Americans think policy fails to reflect American attitudes toward immigration or government spending, while 64% believe abortion policy is out of touch. A similar majority (63%) believe gun laws do not reflect what the majority of Americans want from the government.

The priority of these issues varied depending on political identification: 75% of Democrats were concerned about gun policy versus 48% of Republicans, for example. Seventy-two percent of Republicans felt immigration policy was not reflective of the American public, compared to 61% of Democrats.

The issue with the most bipartisan responses was environmental policy, where 56% of Democrats and 54% of Republicans agreed the government was not acting in accordance with the will of the people.