Democracy in Dark Times is the 2020 edition of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture’s Survey of American Political Culture series. This series is designed to go beyond the “horse-race” perspective of the typical election-year survey in order to understand not just the political weather, but the cultural climate shaping the election as well.

To this end, the 2020 survey sampled 2,205 adults ages 18 and over from the nationally representative Gallup Panel of over 100,000 active members, which itself is generated through probability sampling methods, including random-digit dialing and address-based sampling, from the larger US population. Our sample of 2,205 includes completed responses from 320 Hispanics (48 of whom completed a Spanish language version of the questionnaire) and 336 non-Hispanic Blacks, as well as an oversample of 504 adults with at least some postgraduate education. The margin of sampling error for the sample of 2,205 adults is ±2.9 percent at the 95 percent confidence level.

The survey was initially fielded from July 28 through August 16 and then returned to the field from August 25 through August 27 to expand the education-based oversample. The typical length of the interview was over 26 minutes. More than 110 questions on a wide range of topics were used to probe the nuances of American political culture at a pivotal juncture in our nation’s history.

Themes of the survey included what the respondents perceive to be the greatest threats to America, how they view supporters and opponents of President Trump, how much confidence they have in a variety of public institutions, and how the coronavirus has affected their thinking. Data were also collected on their religious views, their views regarding racism, their political identification and voting preferences, and their primary source of information on political matters. Both the size of the sample and length of the interview—as well as the oversamples—were designed to permit the exploration of cultural and political contours and subgroup differences that often remain unexamined. 

James Davison Hunter is the LaBrosse-Levinson Distinguished Professor of Religion, Culture and Social Theory at the University of Virginia and the Founder and Executive Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture. Carl Desportes Bowman is a Senior Fellow at the Institute and the Research Director of the Institute’s Survey Lab. Kyle Puetz is an Institute Postdoctoral Fellow.