It is a well-established finding that while people express support for democracy as a preferred way to govern their country, they increasingly voice dissatisfaction with the way their country is run. Populism, skepticism toward democratic institutions, and distrust in political elites are on the rise. However, this trend varies significantly across different countries. This presentation offers an overview of some findings from the project "Political culture, democratic values, and misinformation: Detecting democratic footholds & weaknesses", which explores the political culture in four Visegrad countries - Poland, Hungary, Czechia and Slovakia - along with Germany. We examine the extent to which people in these societies adhere to democratic values and how susceptible they are to misinformation or conspiracy theories. This research is situated within the context of a broader 'crisis of democracy'. The data collection for this project was funded by the International Visegrad Fund and included an online survey with five representative national samples, totaling over 5.300 respondents.