Slip Sliding Away
Critical Analysis
According to the data from the chart above, in the year 2000, what kind of states were the most likely to be more democratic? (Note: “democratic” with a small d means a place with high voting rights and high levels of civil liberties. Large “Democratic” with a large D means, a place run by the Democratic Party. These things are not necessarily the same.)
According to the data from the chart above, in the year 2018, what kind of states were the most democratic?
Based on the data from the chart above, describe one trend in the direction of democracy in American states.
What do you think best explains this trend.
What is one consequence of this trend for people who live in less democratic states.
Divided states are states where one branch of government (for example, the governorship) is controlled by one party, while another branch of government (say, the legislature) is controlled by the other party. For example, in my state (the great Tarheel state of N. Cackalacky) our governor is Democratic and our state legislature is Republican, thus we have divided government. Describe party control of government in your state.
A new study by Jake Grumbach, a political scientist at the University of Washington, developed a State Democracy Index for measuring the health of democratic institutions across all 50 states between 2000 and 2018. The index scores states based on 61 indicators of voting rights and civil liberties, such as whether citizens are allowed to vote by absentee ballot, whether felons have the right to vote after they have served their time, whether incarcerated residents are eligible for release early and whether legislative maps are gerrymandered by one party. Each indicator is fed into a statistical model that derives an overall score for electoral liberties in each state for each year. Based on the maps below* describe the 2018 level of civil liberties and voting rights in your state.
Describe the connection between this chart and the concept of federalism.
Make a claim about whether it is better to live in a more small d-democratic or a less small d-democratic state.
Since their party’s losses in the 2020 presidential election, Republican state lawmakers across the United States have introduced hundreds of bills limiting voting access. Georgia’s bill, for example, which was signed into law on March 25th, reduces the number of ballot dropboxes for absentee voters and gives the Republican-dominated state legislature more power over county election officials. How do you think the 2020 election will impact the democracy index across our nation.
Learning Extension
Listen to the following short interview of the author of the study or read the transcript.
Action Extension
Contact your state legislators and, depending on your position on democracy, urge them to either increase or decrease voting rights in your state.
Visual Extension
Whoa - North Carolina!
