Democracy

Today, democracy is understood in its shallow form: to many, it just means that the people can vote in elections for their government. But there is a deeper, more inspiring conception of democracy.

Deep democracy begins with a faith in the creative power of ordinary citizens — a presumption that all of us, not just a select few, can participate in the co-creation of our nation. From this faith comes the pursuit of a government and economy that are not only for all people, but of and by all people, as well. To be a deep democrat is to believe that when we open up power to more people in more ways — when people have a say in the forces that govern their lives — we flourish as a nation. It is to define freedom not as freedom from government (as libertarians define it), but rather as Martin Luther King Jr. defined it: as “participation in power.”

My guiding lights of democracy are folks like Roberto Mangabeira Unger, who built on John Dewey‘s work to clarify what deepening democracy means, and Ralph Nader, who has fought his whole life to restore a sense of “public citizenship” to American politics.

To help deepen democracy, I am working to build the Democracy Policy Network (DPN), a state policy organization focused on raising up ideas that deepen democracy. Through DPN, we are organizing: (1) a comprehensive, vision-based, open agenda for deepening democracy in the states that reflects The Democracy Movement’s ambitions, spirit, and breadth — from ranked-choice voting to social housing to a state-level Green New Deals; and (2) an interstate policy community of democratically-spirited state leaders, experts, and volunteers to develop and advance that agenda across the country. In doing so, we hope to help inspire more politicians to adopt a bolder democratic vision for the future of our country and a bolder democratic governing agenda to make that vision a reality.

Through DPN, I have also launched a podcast, This is What Democracy Looks Like, that aims to explore, as the title implies, what a deeper democracy could, concretely, look like.

I have also been interested in finding ways to better align the Democratic Party’s vision (what the party fights for) and structure (how the party fights for it) with the goal of deepening democracy. To advance this project, I am working on a book about the past, present and possible future of the Democratic Party, provisionally titled The Next Democratic Party. The book will focus on how the party — through a more democratic policy vision and a more participatory, membership-based structure — can better live up to its name.