December 6, 2023
December 6, 2023 New York, N.Y. – At a time when Americans are increasingly concerned about the health of democracy, a new report from the Johns Hopkins University SNF Agora Institute and the nonprofit More in Common argues for increased attention to building civic infrastructure that cultivates what it calls everyday democracy, where Americans work across lines of difference to address shared public problems.
This approach has long been vital to America’s progress as a nation but has fallen out of favor in recent decades as civic infrastructure has declined more generally. The report argues for reinvigorating everyday democracy as a complement to existing institutional reform and bridge-building efforts.
“Despite all the attention given to the myriad risks facing American democracy, very little has focused on what it would take to build a healthy civic infrastructure,” said Hahrie Han, director of the SNF Agora Institute and a professor of political science. “It turns out that there are clear design features that make civic settings better at bringing Americans together across lines of difference to solve shared problems.”
The report includes an essay by Isak Travnik, an assistant professor at Metro State University, that draws on a wide range of scholarship to argue that healthy civic infrastructure – what the report refers to as “collective settings” – exhibits four key features:
The report also features a set of case studies by Emily Campbell, an assistant professor at Rhode Island College, that features examples of institutional reform (voting and elections reforms in Alaska), bridgebuilding (Braver Angels), and everyday democracy (Blue Mountain Forest Partners). Through interviews and background research, Campbell highlights both the strengths and weaknesses of each strategy for strengthening democracy.
“The unique feature of everyday democracy is that it turns democracy from a noun into a verb; it is about enabling Americans to have greater authority in making decisions that impact their community and to hold more responsibility for the outcomes,” said Dan Vallone, director of More in Common. “There is an enormous opportunity to expand and bolster the civic infrastructure vital for everyday democracy to flourish across the country.”
This report seeks to re-articulate a long-standing paradigm for making democracy work that has gotten lost in the attention economy that drives much of American politics. Investing in the design and distribution of civic infrastructure may not be the approach that garners the viral attention, but it is necessary for preparing our people and our communities for the inevitable uncertainties that we will face in the future. By investing in collective settings, we develop the muscles for democracy that people and communities will need to seek, identify, and implement shared solutions that do not accept the world as it is but instead create the world they need.
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More in Common U.S. is a non-partisan research and civic nonprofit that studies the forces pulling America apart, seeking to disrupt polarization and forge a stronger sense of what Americans have in common.
The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Agora Institute seeks to realize the promise of the ancient agora in modern times, by strengthening opportunities for people of all backgrounds to dialogue across difference, vigorously contest values and ideas that form the foundation of pluralistic democracy, and act together to have voice in developing solutions that lead to a better world.