DEMOCRACY WATCHDemocracy Teetering on the Brink
In a time of polarization and tribalism, when only 30 percent of millennials see democracy as “essential,” the need to protect and renovate our system of government is now more urgent than ever, said political scientist Danielle Allen. She says ordinary citizens need to step up, calls for formation of cross-ideological supermajority committed to revitalizing system.
In a time of polarization and tribalism, when only 30 percent of millennials see democracy as “essential,” the need to protect and renovate our system of government is now more urgent than ever, said political scientist Danielle Allen in her Robert C. Cobb Sr. Memorial Lecture last Friday.
Allen, the James Bryant Conant University Professor, highlighted the critical role ordinary citizens must play in sustaining democracy, invoking the legacy of her maternal great-grandfather, who fought for women’s suffrage, and her paternal grandfather, who helped found one of the first NAACP chapters in northern Florida in the 1940s,
“I was really fortunate to come from people who saw empowerment, and therefore democracy, as the bedrock to human thriving and well-being,” said Allen during her talk “Bringing Democracy Back from the Brink: A Strategic Vision and Call to Action,” hosted by the Harvard Institute for Learning in Retirement.
“They were often told that something was impossible, that African American social equality in the South was impossible, or that women having the right to vote was impossible. Their answer was, ‘No. Not only is it possible, it is necessary. It’s necessary to have a democracy. It’s not a question of whether we’re going to have a democracy. The only question is how?’”
Allen, who also directs the Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation at Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, spoke about the need to build a broad coalition of people from all ideological camps committed to revitalizing democracy. She called for a “cross-ideological supermajority in support of constitutional democracy,” totaling at least two-thirds of the population, all committed to diversity and inclusion.
“We are a much more diverse society and a much more complex society,” said Allen. “We have legacies and histories from enslavement and other wrongs that we’re still working to overcome. We need a supermajority that is committed to full inclusion and participation for everybody.”
