Whatever else it meant, the storming of the Capitol on January 6th showed that something is deeply wrong with American democracy. How do we fix it? In answering that question,…
In the wake of the November election, it'd be all too easy to get cynical about American democracy. Nearly half the electorate seems to doubt the results of the presidential…
I hail from a small city along the Mississippi that’s worked hard to restore its downtown architecture for both cultural and economic reasons. For a time the new mall on…
A new paper published by Public Agenda quotes both of EnCiv's founders, Will Ferguson and Adolf Gundersen, on the importance of non-profit alternatives to commercial social media. Public Agenda is…
This Thanksgiving consider including democracy in your list of blessings. Or maybe saying "thanks" to all those working to defend and improve it. Just a few things democracy gives us:…
Civic tech and dialogue practitioners are taking notice of a new online news service called The Fulcrum, which describes itself as "focused exclusively on efforts to reverse the dysfunctions plaguing…
Former Supreme Court Justice Learned Hand (1872-1961) is the most quoted justice in US history. His eloquence continues to inform discussions of everything from taxation to the preconditions of a…
I was introduced to another image of democracy when I went off to school in the late '70s: the co-operative, or "co-op", as most people called them. There were bike…
Our last post began our occasional series "Images of Democracy" not by discussing a famous speech or political theory, but by describing the poetic vision of Walt Whitman. Continuing that…
Walt Whitman (1819-92) is almost universally recognized as America's greatest poet--not least because of his ability to formulate and convey a profound and inspiring view of what it means to…
In the title of a timely new work author James Miller asks Can democracy work? --The answer, Miller argues, has never been obvious. Since its origins in ancient Athens, democracy…
The fourth Frequently Voiced Objection to getting involved in civil discussion is, like the previous one, rooted in the assumption that politics isn’t worth talking about to begin with—not because…
Another reason people often write off politics—and with it, getting involved in civil discussion— is that they believe that politics is rigged from the start. This Frequently Voiced Objection often…
Facebook is among the titans of social media--but hardly a friendly one. In fact, according to an in-depth analysis by major Facebook investor Roger McNamee, social media giants like Facebook…
Every civics student can tell you that democracy means “rule by the people”. But who hasn’t doubted whether that leaves any role for us as individuals? I’ve never understood why…