A project of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences

Champions

Champions are organizations committed to advancing the recommendations in the Our Common Purpose report. 

Our Common Purpose Champions Statement

A call for all Americans to work to increase the resiliency of our constitutional democracy by 2026, our nation’s 250th anniversary 

This is a pivotal moment in the history of the American experiment. The public health and economic crisis of the coronavirus pandemic and the nationwide protests for racial justice have exposed the vulnerabilities of our constitutional democracy today — disunity amidst rising inequality and profound demographic shifts, a fragmented media environment, widespread distrust of our political institutions and leaders, resentment of centralized power, and hyper-partisan polarization.

In short, we lack common purpose as Americans.

These challenges require a reassessment of our political institutions, the civil society groups through which we associate, and our civic culture – the values, norms, and narratives that inspire our commitment to our democracy and each other. We must move quickly to improve the resilience of our republic, strengthen our nation’s common purpose, and restore trust in one another and our institutions. Now is the time to reinvent America's constitutional democracy for the 21st century.

Our Common Purpose: Reinventing American Democracy for the 21st Century, the 2020 report of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences' Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship, proposes 31 recommendations to achieve that end. Not every signatory of this statement supports every recommendation, but all of us agree that this package of recommendations deserves serious debate. Having achieved unanimous support from its bipartisan and diverse membership, the Commission offers a model, inspired by our nation's founders, of compromise and consensus building. This approach is urgently needed, from our town halls to the halls of Congress, if we are to find a way forward together.

Reinvention is part of the American creed. Many of us are committed to advancing one or more of the recommendations in this report by launching new initiatives, building grassroots support, or increasing collaboration to support significant progress at the local, state, or national level. We call on our fellow Americans—individual citizens, businesses, civil society groups, educators, philanthropists, and state, local and federal policymakers—to join us in taking action to reinvent American democracy so that it serves all Americans. This, in our moment of peril, must be our common purpose.

Some organizations and individuals are committed to serving as Champions for specific recommendations, while others are Champions for the report as a whole.

To learn more about becoming a Champion, please contact OurCommonPurpose@amacad.org.