Loading…
Satisfaction with the way democracy works in the United States on a four-point scale from very satisfied to not at all satisfied, asked identically in the GSS (2000 and 2024) and ANES (2004 to 2024).
AI-matched An AI model grouped these questions and mapped their answers onto shared categories, and a second AI review checked and corrected the grouping and mapping. No person has checked it: compare the question wordings and the answer mapping below before reading the lines against each other.
Latest: 7% answered “Not at all satisfied” in ANES, 2024.
Dashed lines mark changes in how interviews were done, which can shift answers: 1. ANES → mixed mode (2012).
Dashed lines mark changes in how interviews were done, which can shift answers: 1. GSS → mixed mode (2024).
Shares of people whose answer maps onto these categories (non-answers and answers outside the scale are left out), because surveys differ in whether they offer “don’t know.” Each column is one survey wave, evenly spaced rather than to scale in time; hover for exact shares.
Dashed lines mark changes in how interviews were done, which can shift answers: 1. ANES → mixed mode (2012); 2. GSS → mixed mode (2024).
Shares of people whose answer maps onto these categories (non-answers and answers outside the scale are left out), because surveys differ in whether they offer “don’t know.” Each point is one survey wave at the middle of its field period. Lines from different surveys are never spliced together.
Groups differ from everyone by 7 points on average across all answers, in ANES.
| Line | Question | Match | How answers map |
|---|---|---|---|
| ANES | Satisfaction with how democracy works in the U.S. On the whole, are you very satisfied, fairly satisfied, not very satisfied, or not at all satisfied with the way democracy works in the United States?
{INTERVIEWER: DO NOT PROBE DON’T KNOW} Caveat: Same wording as GSS; interviewer instructed not to probe don't know, differing survey mode/context | equivalent | Very satisfied → Very satisfied; Fairly satisfied → Fairly satisfied; Not very satisfied → Not very satisfied; Not at all satisfied → Not at all satisfied |
| GSS | Satisfaction with how democracy works in America On the whole, are you very satisfied, fairly satisfied, not very satisfied, or not at all satisfied with the way democracy works in the United States? Caveat: Reference wording; no notable differences | identical | Very satisfied → Very satisfied; Fairly satisfied → Fairly satisfied; Not very satisfied → Not very satisfied; Not at all satisfied → Not at all satisfied |
Dashed lines mark changes in how interviews were done, which can shift answers: 1. ANES → mixed mode (2012).
Groups differ from everyone by 6 points on average across all answers, in ANES.
Dashed lines mark changes in how interviews were done, which can shift answers: 1. ANES → mixed mode (2012).
Subgroup charts are picked automatically. Of every breakdown in the data (party, ideology, age, sex, race, education, income, region, religion, and community type), these two put their groups furthest from everyone’s answers: the gap is averaged across all answer categories and waves, with each group weighted by its share of respondents. Party and ideology count as one choice, so the second chart shows a different kind of split. Groups with an effective sample under 50 in a wave are left out of that wave.