U.S. conservatives believe American democracy has abandoned its founding values and perceive their challenges to traditional government institutions and processes as an effort to restore those original ideals, not reject them, according to a new study from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Agora Institute of Johns Hopkins University and ReD Associates.
To conservatives, “the American government is and has always been conditional on a moral foundation organized around faith, family, freedom, and place, and the purpose of democratic government is to protect and uphold this foundation,” states the report, co-authored with ReD Associates, a strategic social sciences consulting firm.
Key Takeaways
- U.S. conservatives believe American democracy has abandoned its founding values.
- They believe their challenges to government institutions aim to restore those original ideals, not reject them.
- Constructive dialogue with conservatives should consider this perspective rather than assuming such views are rooted in a desire to undermine democratic norms.
“Now, however, the very institutions built to protect it have become disconnected from, or even threatening to, that moral foundation,” according to the report. Conservatives that chafe at democratic institutions, practices, and processes are not rejecting democracy, but are “driven by an impulse to restore democracy.”
In February 2026, the SNF Agora Institute and ReD Associates spent three weeks conducting ethnographic research with 21 conservatives and their friends and families across three counties in Wyoming, Michigan, and South Carolina. The goal was to understand the underlying social and cultural drivers of support for democratic norm deviation.
The central question conservatives are asking, according to the report’s findings, is not, “Should America be a democracy?” but rather, “Has American democracy remained faithful to what makes it legitimate?”
Constructive dialogue with conservatives should consider this perspective rather than assuming such views are rooted in a desire to undermine democratic norms.
“Engaging conservatives today will require acknowledging this genuine concern about legitimacy and values rather than treating it as anti-democratic sentiment,” the report states.
Scott Warren, an SNF Agora Institute fellow and co-author of the report, said, “Our research shows that many conservatives see themselves not as opposing democracy, but as defending what they believe it was meant to be and meant to lead to. If we want more productive conversations across political divides, and to restore and strengthen our democracy itself, we need to take those beliefs seriously, rather than focusing on our own principles.”
