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Are Millennials Backing Off Democracy? Catalyst Contributors Debate the Issue

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Learn more about William McKenzie.
William McKenzie
Senior Editorial Advisor
George W. Bush Institute

William Galston and Yascha Mounk, two leading political scientists, discuss in their Catalyst pieces whether support for democracy is declining among millennials.

 Yascha Mounk, a New America fellow and Harvard University instructor, kicked off a heated discussion this year with an article in the Journal of Democracy that warns about declining support for democracy. Mounk particularly cited surveys looking at democratic support among millennials.

 The Catalyst: A Journal of Ideas from the Bush Institute asked Mounk to further explain his conclusions. You can hear about them in this Catalyst video interview. 

Not surprisingly, his view is not universally shared. William Galton, a Brookings Institution fellow and Wall Street Journal columnist, writes in The Catalyst that democracy is not in danger at home, including among millennials. He points to other survey data to buttress his point, as well as periods in our past where challenges were far greater. 

Yet Galston contends that Americans should not become complacent. The struggle for more Americans to enter the middle class is one sign that democracy may not be delivering for all of us. Similarly, the inability of Washington to come to terms with major problems like our creaky immigration system creates strains. 

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