Americans widely pessimistic about US democracy: AP-NORC poll

NEW YORK -- Only about 1 in 10 US adults give high ratings to the way democracy is working in the United States or how well it represents the interests of most Americans, according to a new poll from The Associated Press (AP)-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

"Majorities of adults say US laws and policies do a poor job of representing what most Americans want on issues ranging from the economy and government spending to gun policy, immigration and abortion," said an AP report about the poll on Friday.

The poll shows that 53 percent say Congress is doing a bad job of upholding democratic values, compared with just 16 percent who say it's doing a good job, the report noted.

"The findings illustrate widespread political alienation as a polarized country limps out of the pandemic and into a recovery haunted by inflation and fears of a recession," it said.

In interviews, respondents worried less about the machinery of democracy -- voting laws and the tabulation of ballots -- and more about the outputs, it added.