Douglas Zoerb believes democracy in America may be on its last legs.

The Manitowoc man said the system of checks and balances between the branches of government set out in the U.S. Constitution is broken and increasing political polarization in the two-party system is making it impossible to solve the country's problems.

"I think we're one step away from a de facto dictatorship where elections are rigged or canceled," Zoerb said. "It's scary."

As Americans gather to celebrate freedom this Independence Day, many also worry about the future of the country, the state of democracy and the growing national division.

The Declaration of Independence, adopted on July 4, 1776 by the Continental Congress, formally cut ties with Great Britain. It would lead the former American colonies into the Revolutionary War with the declaration providing the philosophical as well as practical reasons for the split.

Central to the ideas behind the break with Britain are Thomas Jefferson's words, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Self-government was a radical concept in 1776. In many respects, it is equally true today with democracies showing signs of strain, from the rise of populists rolling back basic rights to Britain's painful break with the European Union.

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In a 2018 Pew Research Center survey measuring satisfaction in the way democracy is working across 27 nations, the United States fell at number 10 with 58% of respondents expressing dissatisfaction with democratic functions within the country.

Mexico, Greece, Brazil and Spain were the nations most unhappy with the state of democracy in their countries with over 80% of respondents sharing a negative view of their political systems. Japan and the United Kingdom trailed shortly behind the U.S. with slightly over 50% dissatisfied.

The median number of people who expressed democratic dissatisfaction still hit a majority of 51% across all 27 countries.

In an unscientific survey put out by USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin, most of the of respondents were unsure about democracy's ability to survive. Many who said they believed in the future of democracy added changes that need to be made on the federal and state government level to ensure its survival. A handful of the 80 respondents said they believed democracy has no future in America.

The view of democracy around the world is wavering as tension continues across populist movements in the U.S. and Europe in response to an increasingly centralized political presence and growing rural urban divide.

Meanwhile, the Chinese Communist Party has helped set an unprecedented record for economic growth and prosperity.

Since the country opened up foreign trade and began its free market reforms in 1979, it remains one of the world's fastest-growing economies, moving twice as fast as the U.S. Since it's reforms, China's GDP averages at about 10% per year and has helped lift over 850 million people out of poverty.

"We are losing the fairness of our justice system and we are losing the economic war with China," said Frank Alliet of Appleton. "We are under assault from all directions."

The distress of democracy in the West and the rise of a hegemonic China as a world power provokes the question: Can liberal democracy survive?

Us vs. them

Patterns around the globe have shed light on a growing distance between politicians and the public as well as the rise of a rural urban divide shaping political fault lines.

Public unrest has sparked resentment against the political elite, rapid cultural and social changes shaping the Western landscape and rising economic frustrations.

Michael Wagner, a journalism professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who specializes in understanding how well democracy is functioning in society, said economic inequality is one of the major factors contributing to the dissatisfaction.

"The very rich are getting richer and the gap between the very rich and everyone else is increasing," Wagner said. "Historically, as economic inequality increases, polarization does too."

As for trust in those who govern, a global survey by Pew showed 61% of respondents believe politicians don't care about what the public thinks.

Joanne Nesbitt, of Sturgeon Bay, shares this sentiment and believes there are few altruistic politicians in power.

"I feel like the elected officials are now the elite and do not pay attention to the peoples' problems," she said. "Their own good is what counts to them."

Darrell Thatcher, of Menasha, doesn't believe politicians represent peoples' interests and fears that will lead to the death of a functioning democracy.

"Democracy can never survive," Thatcher said. "The representatives are supposed to speak for the people. They are not doing so and will destroy this country."

Wisconsinites' cause for concern

Among worries raised by respondents to our survey about the issues threatening democracy, voter suppression, gerrymandering efforts and political parties moving further away from the center of the spectrum were cited among top concerns.

"Gerrymandering and tactics to stop people from voting has taken the say in who gets elected away," said Ann Braaten of Greenville.

Wagner said gerrymandering, or manipulating electoral district boundaries for the benefit of one party over another, is an issue that's frustrated voters on both sides of the aisle in Wisconsin.

A Marquette Law School Poll from April found 72% of voters say they prefer redistricting of legislative and congressional districts to be done by a nonpartisan commission.

A skewed district map also prevents electoral results for party voting to mismatch the representation of those serving in the legislature. An example of this can fall to the 2012 presidential election year which showed Wisconsin voters favored Barack Obama, a Democrat, by nearly 7 points despite the district map showing large Republican majorities and 60% of the state Assembly seats held by GOP members.

"People have a sense for what's fair," Wagner said. "They think that the party that gets the most votes should have the most seats. They think that a nonpartisan group should be drawing the district lines so our legislators can't just choose who their constituents are."

Wagner cites a more recent example in the state that could discredit a healthy democracy is the GOP-backed lame-duck legislation that aimed to curtail powers of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and Attorney General Josh Kaul after the 2018 election.

Some of the legislation aimed to reinforce power of the Legislature over the governor and attorney general on issues such as health care, litigation and public benefits. To pass the measures, legislators held an extraordinary session, in which they meet at the Capitol unscheduled.

"That's an example of a behavior that threatens democracy because it makes the path of ignoring the rule of law more visible," Wagner said. "I don't think its put us on a slippery slope or anything like that but it's the kind of behavior you tend not to do if democracy is working well."

The Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld the lame-duck laws in a 4-3 decision.

The drifting of both Republicans and Democrats to extremes of the political spectrum is also concerning for some voters.

Walt Randolph, of Omro, said he worries about the rising interest in socialism among the Left.

"That scares me," Randolph said. "I do not want to pay for people that do not work and never will."

However, Wagner said it's the reluctance to work together that's becoming a problem for public officials more than their increasingly disagreeing views.

"The problem is an unwillingness to compromise when the situation calls for it and to accept that you lost when you lose," he said.

Falling world order

With frustrations mounting across liberal democracies, how does the world see the "China model" as a possible alternative?

Chinese President Xi Jinping previously touted the country's strong performance and said other nations should look to China's ability to tackle problems facing humanity.

The country's social and economic stability has risen to become an alternative model to the market-friendly system of the West, but experts and the public argue the challenges that come with freedom still outweigh the security of authoritarianism.

"Democracies are messy, inefficient and expensive, but this is the cost of freedom," said Richard Avramenko, Director of the Center for the Study of Liberal Democracy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

"China does not offer its citizens the liberty to contest elections, protest policy, use Facebook, practice religion, educate your children as you see fit, move wherever you want to move, etc.," he said. "Stability, in this sense, is the hallmark of tyranny."

As for American democracy, some optimists say they believe in its future, buts its fate is in the hands of the public.

"It can survive in the future only if people act in its defense," Ethan Najacht of Green Bay said. "Democracy needs to be cultivated because it'll die otherwise."

Contact Mica Soellner at 920-996-7226 or msoellner@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @micasoellner.