Strategy 5 Build Civic Information Architecture that Supports Common Purpose
Improve Data on Democratic Engagement

Recommendation 5.5
Establish and fund the Democratic Engagement Project: a new data source and clearinghouse for research that supports social and civic infrastructure. The Project would conduct a focused, large scale, systematic, and longitudinal study of individual and organizational democratic engagement, including the full integration of measurement and the evaluation of democratic engagement in digital contexts.
In order to implement Recommendation 5.5 by 2026, the Commission proposes the following milestones to complete by year-end of:
2020
- Announce formation of Democratic Engagement Project and convene a working group to begin project scoping and development
2021
- Identify partner institutions that will house the different functions of the project (perhaps through a convening of funders and an RFP)
2024
- Establish a quarterly index to measure behaviors and attitudes in civic life (similar to the Consumer Sentiment Index at the University of Michigan) at the national, state, and community level