Fixing DemocracyPOLS 125: Political Parties &

Elections

One word

?

What ONE WORD best describes your impression of the

presidential candidates?

Word Cloud constructed from the responses people gave to a Pew Research Center poll, January 2012:

What ONE WORD best describes your impression of... Barack Obama

Word Cloud constructed from the responses people gave to a Pew Research Center poll, March 2012:

What ONE WORD best describes your impression of... Mitt Romney

?

What ONE WORD best describes your impression of the

Democratic and Republican parties?

Words that Democrats use to describe Republicans

Words that Democrats use to describe Republicans

Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation poll, August 2012

Words that Republicans use to describe Democrats

Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation poll, August 2012

What ONE WORD best describes your impression of Congress?

?

Word Cloud constructed from the responses people gave to a Pew Research Center poll in March 2010:

“One word that best describes your impression of Congress"

So we don’t like POLITICAL CANDIDATES, or the PARTIES they represent, or the INSTITITUIONS they manage,

How then do we feel about the democratic ELECTIONS that seek to change those things?

What one word describes your current state of mind?

Throughout Election Day in 2008, NYTimes.com readers submitted the words that best described their moods.

One year later…

What’s Wrong with U.S. Elections?

Can we take these words and combine them into sentences that identify the strengths and weaknesses of the U.S. electoral system?• Candidates• Parties • Institutions• Process