Restore democracy through state governance

Democracy in the United States is broken, according to a new poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The research, conducted in June, shows that just 10 percent of Americans think democracy is working to represent the interests of all citizens. Substantially fewer than half of adults think Congress, the president, the Supreme Court or the two major political parties are doing a good job at upholding democratic values.

Overall approval ratings of our federal government are not much better. The AP-NORC survey has President Joe Biden’s approval rating at 41 percent, and congressional approval continues to hover around a dismal 20 percent. None of this should be surprising, as multiple sources have reported a long-term decline in American institutions.

However, most of these reports don’t capture data on how Americans think state-level governments perform. If they did, there might be a different story to tell about the effectiveness of government and its ability to represent the people. Voters consistently trust state and local government more than the federal government, and recent data from Morning Consult also shows that the least popular governor in America still has a higher approval rating than President Biden. In fact, 44 governors have an approval rating over 50 percent, a number that would thrill  a modern-day president.

The new AP-NORC report also points out that seven in ten Americans believe the wants of “most Americans” should be an important factor when considering new laws. In a nation of 330 million people with significant regional differences, what does it mean to do what “most Americans” want? To illustrate, while 60 percent of Americans believe recreational marijuana use should be legal, voters in three states (both Dakotas and Arkansas) rejected the idea in the 2022 midterms. Allowing the aggregate opinions of people thousands of miles away to dictate local laws goes against every fiber of the American ideal of self-governance. 

A focus on national politics, mixed with a minority that has taken political tribalism to dogmatic levels, makes it hard for people to let go of what is happening in other parts of the country. Instead of concentrating on state and local laws, which have the most influence on how Americans live their lives, partisans clamor for federal action — despite the fact that federal changes take a long time and are often constructed sloppily so that they spur constitutional challenges. Incidentally, the AP-NORC poll shows Americans believe “what it says in the Constitution” should be a key component of how we decide which laws to enact. The national fight, and the nastiness with which it is covered, erodes faith in the idea that a great deal of progress can happen in our local communities, without the federal government at all.

America is too big to rule effectively as one large democracy. This isn’t a change that came with rapid population growth — it was as true in the 18th century as it is today, which is why America was founded as a voluntary union of individual, independent states, which could more effectively function as democratic entities. Polling from State Policy Network, where I am a fellow, shows two-thirds of voters agree with the underlying concepts, saying that states should be able to make their own laws, specifically so they reflect the different values, priorities and needs of the local population. 

Americans seem to intrinsically know state governments produce better results than Washington, and they don’t see our current federally focused system as particularly democratic. It’s time we tell the federal government to stand down and let states handle the day-to-day work of running the nation.  

Erin Norman is the Lee Family Fellow and Senior Messaging Strategist at State Policy Network.