by Bryan Babb
A significant majority of Americans see the need for changes to their political system, a Thursday Pew Research Center poll found.
At least 85% of Americans polled stated that their political system “needs to be completely reformed” or “needs major changes,” according to the poll. Meanwhile, 66% of Americans saw the need for change or reform in the U.S. economic system and 76% saw the need for transformation in the healthcare system, the poll found.
85% of Americans (!) say the nation's political system needs major changes or needs to be completely reformed, according to a new @pewglobal survey. But the US isn't alone in that regard: Similar shares say the same thing in Italy, Spain and South Korea. https://t.co/XkE8zKS1gJ pic.twitter.com/JOnWi973r1
— John Gramlich (@johngramlich) October 21, 2021
Less than half of respondents expressed satisfaction with U.S. democracy, while 58% said they were “not satisfied,” according to the poll. Pew Research Center noted that “Dissatisfaction with functioning of democracy is linked to concerns about the economy, the pandemic and social divisions.”
The poll showed that the U.S. was one of 17 countries with advanced economies that expressed a significant amount of dissatisfaction with their democracies, with all countries surveyed showing that “fewer than three-in-ten say the political system should not be changed at all.” However, the U.S. and Greece were outliers in that over three quarters of their populations saw the need for change or reform to their health care system.
Pew Research Center polled a total of 2,596 U.S. adults from Feb. 1 to Feb. 7 with a margin of error of 2.7 percentage points. Internationally, it polled a total of 16,254 adults from 16 countries with advanced economies from Mar. 12 to May 26.
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Bryan Babb is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
