Video
In a spring Foreign Affairs article, Steven Levitsky, Professor of Government at Harvard University and co-author of How Democracies Die, predicts that “U.S. democracy will likely break down during the second Trump administration, in the sense that it will cease to meet standard criteria for liberal democracy: full adult suffrage, free and fair elections, and broad protection of civil liberties.” In this online event, Virginia Kase Solomón, President and CEO of the national pro-democracy organization Common Cause, will discuss how her organization and others are working to prove him wrong. We’ll explore some decisions by the Trump administration that worry democracy advocates—including election rule changes and military deployments to cities—as well as some of the strategies of democracy advocates, their prospects for success and failure, and what more can be done. Archon Fung, Director of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, will moderate.
Policy Brief
In a new policy brief, Tova Wang, Director of Research Projects in Democratic Practice at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation and coauthors, explore how unions help members become more engaged in civic and political life.
Podcast
Larry Bartels, the Vanderbilt political scientist who wrote “Democracy for Realists” and “Democracy Erodes from the Top,” joins Terms of Engagement to explore the question, is Democracy eroding from the top?
Article
In a new research article, Democracy Visiting Fellow Gordon Gauchat and co-author Kassandra Thompson offer an alternative framework for public understanding of science, focusing on “science’s role as a social system” shaped by institutional norms and practices, rather than traditional approaches centered on knowledge possession or trust in experts.
Policy Brief
In a new policy brief, Tova Wang, Director of Research Projects in Democratic Practice at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation and coauthors, explore how unions help members become more engaged in civic and political life.
Media Release
Commentary
Allen Lab Fellow Tyler Fisher examines the untapped potential of city charters as a vehicle for deliberative democracy, arguing that advocates should work to embed tools like citizen assemblies, participatory budgeting, and town meetings directly into the governing architecture of cities, institutionalizing deliberative democracy one municipality at a time.
