THE CONSEQUENCES OF ELECTIONS: THREATS TO THE LEGITIMACY OF AMERICAN DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONS FROM TRUMP AND THE 2020 U.S. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

The end of the Trump Era has not come with a “whimper.” Instead, Trump’s “bang” has raised a wide variety of concerns about the strength of America’s democracy. Included in this list of worries is concern about the 2020 presidential election’s effects on the legitimacy of American political institutions, from the presidency to the U.S. Supreme Court. The purpose of this paper is to assess the election’s consequences from the viewpoint of the American people (so-called sociological legitimacy), based on a pair of nationally representative surveys beginning in July 2020 and concluding on January 5, 2021. Has significant damage been done to our political institutions by the events surrounding the presidential election of 2020? The answer of this paper is generally “no.” Indeed, perhaps the most important conclusion of this analysis is that American political institutions are resilient, just as has been predicted by Legitimacy Theory.