AUTHORITARIAN WARNING SURVEY

Note: This article first appeared at The Monkey Cage and is cross-posted here. Prior to the 2016 election, at least 21 U.S. states’ registration databases or websites were targeted by hackers and seven states were successfully “compromised,” although there’s no evidence that votes were altered. As American intelligence agencies recently made clear, the risk to voting systems continues in 2018. Foreign actors could target registration records, electronic voting machines, or vo

Our expert survey results in February 2018 demonstrate increased threat levels and perceived risk of democratic breakdown. From January to February 2018, ratings worsened on five of six dimensions of democratic performance, reversing the improvement from December to January. Further, experts rate a 16.7% chance of democratic breakdown in the U.S. within the next four years, a marked increase from recent months, and 100% of respondents believe that democratic quality has decli