A total of 47% of Americans say they have "a great deal" or "quite a bit" of confidence, another 24% have "a moderate amount" of confidence, and 28% have either "only a little" confidence or "none at all."
Among Democrats, 74% say they are highly confident. On the Republican side, 25% have high confidence, 30% have moderate confidence and 45% have little to no confidence, according to the poll.
Fifty-two percent of respondents say that US democracy is not working well. Only 9% of Americans said democracy is working "extremely" or "very well."
Views are divided along partisan lines, with 68% of Republicans and 40% of Democrats unsatisfied with the way democracy is working, the poll revealed.
Just about 25% of US adults say they are optimistic about the way leaders are chosen, while 43% say they are pessimistic. More than 30% are neither, according to the survey.
The poll was conducted from October 6-10 using a sample of 1,121 adults. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.