Recent years have seen increasing concerns over the state of democracy in the US, with a majority of Americans believing it to be under threat. Using data from an annual survey, Stephanie Leiser, Debra Horner, and Natalie Fitzpatrick find that local officials report that the functioning of democracy in their communities has been stable or improved in recent years, and that communities are creating more opportunities for engagement via online tools and in-person meetings. They suggest that, despite some warning signals, the strength of grassroots local democracy may provide hope at a time of concern about US democracy more widely.
Ask a typical mayor or township supervisor how democracy is functioning in their community, and there's a good chance they'll tell you things are going fairly well. Ask a typical American whether they trust their local government to handle local problems, and there's a good chance they'll tell you they're pretty confident. Despite alarming headlines about democratic backsliding in the US, ongoing opinion research suggests that democracy is largely holding up in city halls, if not in Washington, D.C. But this local resilience is threatened on a few fronts, including startlingly high reported rates of harassment of local officials, public disengagement, and deteriorating public discourse.
Tracking local democracy with local officials
At the University of Michigan's Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy, we've been tracking the functioning of democracy at the local level for many years by asking local officials' assessments of resident engagement, the state of civic discourse, confidence in election administration, ethical conduct, and other democratic practices and norms in their communities. Our Michigan Public Policy Survey regularly achieves a 70 percent response rate from local officials in Michigan's 1,856 cities, villages, townships, and counties, which ensures that we hear from the full range of communities in our diverse state — from small, rural townships in the Upper Peninsula to large urban centers like Detroit.
This past spring, when we asked Michigan local officials to rate the overall functioning of democracy in their communities on a scale of one (total breakdown) to ten (perfectly functioning), 82 percent reported a score of seven or higher. As Figure 1 shows, this percentage has fluctuated very little since we began tracking it in 2020, and the percentage reporting poor functioning of democracy has actually fallen from seven to two percent this year. And it's not just that local officials only trust people in their own communities — in 2020, 72 percent also reported that they trust other local governments to "do what is right" most of the time or nearly always.
Figure 1 – Local officials' assessments of the functioning of democracy at the local level in Michigan, 2020-25
Another bright spot is a growing desire among local leaders for their residents to take more active roles in community decisions, leading them to expand opportunities for resident engagement. While the use of online tools like social media, streaming meetings, and email newsletters has become more widespread, communities are also making more efforts with old-fashioned in-person strategies. For example, in 2012, only 17 percent of communities in Michigan held community-wide town hall meetings, and by 2025, that percentage jumped to 39 percent (Figure 2).
Figure 2 – Percent of Michigan jurisdictions reporting use of resident engagement approaches, 2012 vs 2025
Increasing harassment and declining public discourse
It's not all good news from city hall, however, and local officials are sending up warning signals that ought to be heeded. Perhaps most distressing, about half of local officials have experienced some kind of personal harassment, with 39 percent reporting in-person harassment such as hostile or aggressive comments, 31 percent reporting online harassment, and three percent reporting violent actions like assault or destruction of property. Among types of local personnel, election workers report the highest levels of harassment.
MPPS survey results also suggest that the tone of public discourse between elected officials and residents has been gradually deteriorating. Today, as Figure 3 shows, 59 percent of Michigan local governments report that their discussions with residents are somewhat or very constructive, down from 70 percent in 2012, and the percentage of local governments who say discussions are mixed or divisive has risen from 27 percent in 2012 to 34 percent today.
Figure 3 – Local officials' assessments of discussion tone around local policy issues between elected officials and residents, 2012-2025
Part of the deterioration of dialogue on local policy issues may have to do with the intrusion of national politics. In 2021, local officials representing 54 percent of Michigan communities reported that national partisan politics hurt relationships between elected officials and residents. This year, about 24 percent of communities reported that "state or national partisan politics" has harmed resident engagement, and the percentage jumps to 43 percent when looking only at cities.
Recent years have also seen steep drops in the perceived willingness of residents to engage with their local governments. In 2012, 65 percent of local leaders saw their residents as somewhat or very engaged, and that percentage has dropped to 46 percent today, despite the expansion in opportunities for engagement (Figure 4). Michigan's rural communities struggle the most with low engagement, with 13 percent saying their residents are not engaged at all.
Figure 4 – Local leaders' assessments of the level of resident engagement in their jurisdictions, 2012-2025
Local government may be key for democracy
At a time when over three-quarters of Americans feel democracy is under serious threat and 64 percent believe we are too divided to solve the nation's problems, it is important to remember that compared to many countries, political power in the US is relatively decentralized, and state and local governments have some autonomy to tend to their own issues independent of national politics.
Despite significant headwinds, from the perspective of local officials, democracy at its grassroots is mostly enduring. Therefore, those who ask what can be done to shore up American democracy might want to look first to their local city hall.
Written by Stephanie Leiser, Debra Horner, and Natalie Fitzpatrick and reprinted with permission from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
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