Below shot of volunteers stacking hands (via Getty Images).
As political violence increases, both experts and ordinary Americans are concerned that it is undermining American democracy. Political Scientists Jennifer Dresden and Liliana Mason surveyed political violence experts and found 56 percent of them believe that key democratic features such as free and fair elections, the rule of law, and freedom of expression are being harmed by the prevalence of political violence in the United States. According to recent polls, 87 percent of Americans themselves are worried about political violence and 73 percent believe that it is currently harming democracy in the United States. Studies of other countries show that when political violence becomes more common and normalized, citizens’ confidence in democracy decreases along with their willingness to participate in it.
A ray of hope may be found, however, in Americans’ local neighborhoods. In a recently published study, I examine the effects of rising political violence on Americans’ commitment to participate in democracy. I found that Americans from what experts call “socially cohesive neighborhoods” are more likely to remain committed to democratic participation in the face of growing political violence.
What are Socially Cohesive Neighborhoods? Why Might They Protect Democracy from Political Violence?
Socially cohesive neighborhoods are local communities characterized by a strong sense of community ties and strong relationships among neighbors. Neighbors in such communities feel connected to one another by shared values, high levels of trust, and a willingness to work together to help one another and the local community. Studies have found that socially cohesive neighborhoods tend to be healthier, happier, less crime-ridden, and recover more quickly from natural disasters. They are also more likely to embrace and participate in democracy. Americans living in socially cohesive neighborhoods vote at higher rates and exhibit higher levels of civic engagement.
They are also more likely to continue to participate in democracy despite growing political violence. This is due to two key qualities of socially cohesive neighborhoods. First, residents of socially cohesive neighborhoods exert what experts call informal control over other residents’ behavior. For example, when faced with rising crime rates they start neighborhood watch and youth programs and clean up vacant properties. Instead of retreating during a crisis, they exert community ownership over the problem. This quality makes socially cohesive neighborhoods more resilient to threats like political violence and better equipped to challenge the behavior of citizens who transgress norms by acting violently.
Second, residents of socially cohesive neighborhoods trust one another. Interpersonal trust is a cornerstone of democracy and is essential for motivating people to participate in democratic politics. Crises and threats often erode interpersonal trust and polarize people. This reduces democratic participation. However, interpersonal trust is durable in socially cohesive neighborhoods, helping residents feel safe, empowered, and committed to civic engagement.
In summary, socially cohesive neighborhoods are resilient and exhibit high levels of trust. Both characteristics make neighbors within such communities less likely to disengage and retreat from democratic participation in the face of political violence.
The Study
To find out whether socially cohesive neighborhoods preserve democratic participation in the face of rising political violence, I conducted an online survey experiment of 823 Americans. The survey was fielded from July 18 to 31, 2025 and included both Republicans and Democrats. I randomly assigned the study participants to read one of two fictitious news stories that were made to look like real news articles. Participants assigned to the “treatment” group read an article describing a report showing that political violence has dramatically increased in the United States and is now at a 20-year highpoint. The article also had a chart illustrating this increase to make rising political violence more vivid to the reader. Participants assigned to the “control” group read a news article that was structured similarly but reported an increase in pet ownership among Americans. The purpose of the control news article was to not draw attention to rising political violence. All participants were thoroughly debriefed after completing the online survey and were told that the specific details of the articles they read were manipulated for research purposes.
After reading the news articles, I presented the subjects with a set of survey questions. I first asked them about their plans for future democratic participation. Participants were asked how likely they were to vote in upcoming elections, volunteer on political campaigns, go to a political protest, run for office, post a political message on social media, and have political discussions with friends, family, or with strangers. I then asked participants about the neighborhoods they live in; specifically, whether neighbors in their local communities were willing to help one another, share similar values, and were trustworthy. I combined their responses to these questions to construct scales, ranging between 0 and 1, measuring subjects’ commitment to engage in future democratic participation and neighborhood social cohesion. I then analyzed the effects of exposure to information showing increasing political violence on subjects’ plans for political participation using regression analysis.
Findings: Political Violence Reduces Democratic Participation, but Neighborhood Social Cohesion Preserves It
My findings show that while political violence erodes citizens’ commitment to participate in democracy, neighborhood social cohesion helps to preserve democratic participation in the face of it.
I found that exposing participants to information showing that political violence is rapidly increasingly generally dampened their enthusiasm for democratic participation. Participants randomly assigned to read the news story showing increasing political violence were about 5.1 percent less likely to say that they planned to participate in politics by voting, volunteering on a campaign, or having political discussions with others than participants in the treatment group who were randomly assigned to read the story about increasing pet ownership in America.
However, participants who were from socially cohesive neighborhoods did not react to information about rising political violence by reducing their plans to participate in democratic activities. In fact, they increased them. While reading about skyrocketing political violence rates in the United States prompted subjects overall to withdraw from democratic participation, subjects from socially cohesive neighborhoods who were exposed to information about increasing political violence were around 162 percent more likely to state that they planned to engage in core democratic participatory activities in the future.
This stark finding suggests that socially cohesive neighborhoods help to preserve democratic participation in the face of political violence. In fact, residents of socially cohesive neighborhoods seem to come together and recommit to democracy during challenging times.
To Preserve Democracy During Times of Threat, Look to Neighborhoods
It is natural for Americans to talk about national politics in the wake of crises like episodes of political violence. It is easy to blame nationwide political polarization, the rhetoric of national politicians and prominent individuals, or extremist content on social media for the crisis of political violence Americans currently face. And countrywide, political and social factors do play an important role in bolstering violent extremism in the United States today. However, a possible remedy might be found in our local communities. Fostering neighborhood social cohesion by, for example, valuing and promoting active local civic engagement among our neighbors, volunteering with our neighbors to tackle local problems, supporting local newspapers that tie our communities together, or simply getting to know and trust our neighbors better can play an important role in preserving democratic traditions in the face of challenges like political violence.
– James Piazza, Published courtesy of Just Security
