Our Common Purpose: Reinventing American Democracy for the 21st Century

PART 1:

Less than two months before the January 6th “insurrection,” the American Academy of Arts and Sciences published a two-year study of the challenges facing our Constitutional Democracy. Drawing on existing quantitative and qualitative data focusing on civic engagement, consulting with numerous experts/scholars, and conducting close to 50 listening sessions with diverse groups of citizens, the Academy’s Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship developed a framework for examining the current crisis in our Constitutional Democracy. The Commission then offered six strategies and thirty-one recommendations for the reinvention and revitalization of our Constitutional Democracy.   

The events leading up to the January 6th insurrection, the insurrection and its consequences, coupled with the Covid 19 Pandemic, suggest that our Democracy is in a crisis of unprecedented proportion since the  Civil War.  But we must remember that a crisis can be both a time of danger and a time of opportunity.  Our civic actions or inactions can either fulfill John Adams’s dire forecast of 1814 or lead to a revitalized inclusive democracy able to wrestle with the great existential problems of the day.  This “Pathways to Democracy” column and the forthcoming September issue will provide readers with an outline of the challenges facing our Constitutional Democracy and the strategies and recommendations offered by the Commission. The report by the Commission can be accessed in its entirety by going to www.amacd.org/ourcommonpurpose.

Citizens might reflect on Edward Bellamy’s Look Backward, written in 1888. Only Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the Bible had larger printing success in the 19th Century. Hundreds of groups of American citizens gathered to deliberate Bellamy’s utopian vision. It gave rise to the American Progressive Movement which underlay American politics from Teddy Roosevelt to Franklin Roosevelt. It is the hope of this writer that readers of Owl Light News would create small groups to read and discuss the Commission’s strategies and recommendations and where there is consensus become politically engaged to challenge elected officials at all levels (local, state, and Federal).  

The Commission identifies the following challenges facing our Constitutional Democracy:

• Overall distrust of the Federal Govt (only 17% believe it does the right thing).
• Over the last 30 years a growing public disenchantment with the media, business, and religious institutions.
• A growing distrust of our fellow citizens when it comes to politics.
• A growing economic inequality between the top 1% and the rest of the citizenry and the concern that money speaks to power.
• The US ranks 26th out of 32 OECD nations in voter participation.                    • In 2020 the 26 smallest states (in terms of population) control the majority of votes in the Senate while representing only 18% of the population.
• Structural distortions such as the gerrymandering of congressional districts leads to a sense of disenfranchisement.
• In 2019 only 10% of the citizenry attended a public hearing or school board meeting.
• Fewer than 10% have become involved in marches, protests/demonstrations and less than 5% work for a political candidate.
• In 2017 47% of the citizenry were open to looking at alternatives to democracy such as a strong leader or rule by experts. 18-29-year-old citizens are even more dissatisfied with democracy.
• There is a lack of a sense of how to be civically engaged especially among citizens under 50.
• There is a sense among citizens under 50 that there is no common purpose to unite us.

THE  WAY FORWARD

The first strategy offered by the Commission focuses on the achieving of voice and representation by offering the following recommendations:

• Substantially enlarge the House of Representatives through Federal Legislation to make it and the electoral college more representative of the nation’s population.
• Introduce ranked voting-choice voting in presidential, congressional and state elections.
• Amend or repeal the 1967 law that mandates single member districts for the House, so that states have the option to use multi-member districts on the condition that they adopt a non-winner-take-all election model.
• Pass strong campaign-finance disclosure laws in all 50 states that require full transparency for campaign donations including from 501 (C) (4) organizations and LLCs.
• Pass “clean election laws” at all levels which create mechanisms for public matching donations systems and democracy vouchers which amplify the power of small donors.
• Establish Federal legislation to create 18-year terms for Supreme Court justices so one nomination comes up in each term of Congress—Justices at the end of their term can choose to transition to an appeals court.

The second strategy is designed to make voting less burdensome and directly puts the burden on the citizen to vote. The following recommendations are offered by the Commission:

• Give citizens more choices about when/where they vote with state legislation in all states that support the implementation of voter centers and early voting.
• Change federal election day to Veterans Day to honor the service of veterans and to ensure voting can occur on a day most citizens have off.  Align state election calendars with this new federal election day.
• Establish through state and federal legislation same day registration and universal automatic voter registration.                                                                   
• Establish through state legislation the preregistration of 16 and 17-year-olds and provide opportunities for them to practice voting as part of the preregistration process.
• Establish through congressional legislation that voting in federal elections be a requirement of citizenship. All eligible voters would have to vote in person or by mail. Citizens who do not vote will receive a small citation/fine. Citizens may vote but include “none of the above.”
• State legislatures or offices of secretaries of state provide paid voter orientation for first time voters—analogous to jury orientation and jury pay.
• Restore federal and state voting rights to citizens with felony convictions immediately/automatically after their release from prison. 

Strategy Three focuses on ensuring the responsiveness of political institutions by offering the following recommendations:

• Adopt formats, processes and technologies that are designed to encourage widespread participation of citizens in public hearings and meetings at the local/state level.
• Design structured and engaging mechanisms for every member of Congress to interact directly with a random sample of their constituents in an informed and substantive conversation about policy areas under consideration.
• Promote experimentation with citizen assemblies to interact directly with Congress as an institution on issues of Congress’s choosing.
• Expand the breadth of participatory opportunities at municipal and state levels for citizens to shape decision making, budgeting and other policy making processes.

In the September issue of Owl Light News, attention will be paid to the Commission’s three final strategies and thirteen recommendations.  

The strategies include:

• Dramatically expand civic bridging capacity.
• Build civic information architecture that supports the common purpose.
• Inspire a culture of commitment to American constitutional democracy and one another.

The work of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences is illustrative of one of several non-partisan organization who have much to offer American citizens as they wrestle with a democracy in deep turmoil.

Questions / reactions to this column should be directed to Doug Garnar at garnardc@sunybroome.edu.