Less than half of U.S. adults (44%) say they have a great deal or fair amount of confidence in people who hold or are running for public office, rivaling the record low of 42% from 2016. Meanwhile, a small majority (55%) express a similar level of confidence in the judgments of the American people under the democratic system, the lowest Gallup has measured to date but not meaningfully different from 56% readings in 2016 and 2020…

Confidence in the American people to make judgments under the democratic system has declined across all party identification groups over the past two decades.

In most years since 2001, Republicans have expressed a greater degree of trust in American voters when a Republican president occupies the White House, including 2001 through 2008 and 2017 through 2020, and Democrats have expressed more trust in voters when a Democrat is president.

Independents have tended to express slightly less confidence in the American people’s judgment than have Democrats and Republicans.