American Institutions, Society, and the Public Good
Since its founding, projects of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences that work to bolster American citizens’ understanding of and engagement with the institutions of their government have been a hallmark of the Academy’s work. Our charter states that the “end and design” of the American Academy is to “cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance the interest, honor, dignity, and happiness of a free, independent, and virtuous people.” Today this effort involves projects designed to advance the state of scholarship about the nation’s institutions and to develop innovative solutions to problems facing American society in the twenty-first century. Projects in this area interpret the term “institution” broadly, focusing on all of the constituent elements of government and civil society. These projects address how individual citizens interact with social structures, how these experiences prepare people to make a positive contribution to a diverse America, and how these institutions are evolving. The Academy shares this research through publications, convenings, and active outreach.
Program Advisory Committee
CHAIR
Frances McCall Rosenbluth
Yale University
MEMBERS
Danielle Allen
Harvard University
Thomas Bender
New York University
Alan M. Dachs
Fremont Group
Lee Epstein
Washington University in St. Louis
Susan Hanson
Clark University
Antonia Hernández
California Community Foundation
William Poorvu
Harvard Business School
Kenneth Prewitt
Columbia University
James M. Stone
Plymouth Rock Companies
PROJECT
Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship
The Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship is a multiyear project of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The Commission focuses on the impact of political institutions, civic culture, and civil society on individual practice in contemporary democracy in the United States. The work of the Commission explores the factors that encourage and discourage people from becoming engaged in their communities; sheds light on the mechanisms that help people connect across demographic and ideological boundaries; examines how the transformations in our media environment have altered what civic engagement looks like in many communities; and makes recommendations that will encourage participation and empower everyday citizens. The project uses a definition of “citizenship” that extends beyond simple legal status to include people who are “civic participants” in many domains within their communities.
The project seeks to increase democratic engagement in the United States with recommendations that will help empower voters, increase political and civic participation, and revitalize our civic culture. Our Common Purpose: Reinventing American Democracy for the 21st Century, the Commission’s final report and recommendations, was released in June 2020 and included a call to have significant progress on all of its recommendations by 2026.
COMMISSION CHAIRS
Danielle Allen
Harvard University
Stephen Heintz
Rockefeller Brothers Fund
Eric Liu
Citizen University
COMMISSION MEMBERS
Sayu Bhojwani
The New American Leaders Project
danah boyd
Data & Society
Caroline Brettell
Southern Methodist University
David Brooks
The New York Times
David Campbell
University of Notre Dame
Alan Dachs
Fremont Group
Dee Davis
Center for Rural Strategies
Jonathan F. Fanton
President Emeritus, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Lisa García Bedolla
University of California, Berkeley
Sam Gill
John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Marie Griffith
Washington University in Saint Louis
Hahrie Han
Johns Hopkins University
Antonia Hernández
California Community Foundation
Wallace Jefferson
Alexander Dubose & Jefferson, LLP
Joseph Kahne
University of California, Riverside
Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg
Tufts University
Yuval Levin
National Affairs
Carolyn Lukensmeyer
National Institute for Civil Discourse
Martha McCoy
Everyday Democracy
Lynn Nottage
Playwright
Steven Olikara
Millennial Action Project
Norman Ornstein
American Enterprise Institute
Bob Peck
FPR Partners
Pete Peterson
Pepperdine University
Miles Rapoport
Harvard University
Michael Schudson
Columbia University
Sterling Speirn
National Conference on Citizenship
Marcelo Suárez-Orozco
University of Massachusetts Boston; formerly, University of California, Los Angeles
Ben Vinson
Case Western Reserve University
Diane Wood
U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit
Judy Woodruff
PBS
Ethan Zuckerman
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
PROJECT STAFF
Paul Erickson
Gabriela Farrell
Katherine Gagen
Darshan Goux
Tania Munz
FUNDERS
S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation
Rockefeller Brothers Foundation
Alan and Lauren Dachs
Project Publications
The Internet and Engaged Citizenship, David Karpf (American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2019)
The Data Driving Democracy, Christina Couch (American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2020)
The Political and Civic Engagement of Immigrants, Caroline Brettell (American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2020)
Our Common Purpose: Reinventing American Democracy for the 21st Century (American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2020)
Project Meetings
Meeting of the Commission
September 16–17, 2019
Cedarbrook Lodge
Seattle, WA
The fourth meeting of the full Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship focused on finalizing the Commission’s findings and recommendations. The members of the Commission reviewed six strategies and thirty-one tactical recommendations and agreed by unanimous consent to endorse the final report.
Meeting Chairs
Danielle Allen
Harvard University
Stephen Heintz
Rockefeller Brothers Fund
Eric Liu
Citizen University
Convening on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship
February 7, 2020
The House of the Academy
Cambridge, MA
A cornerstone of the work of the Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship has been listening to the voices of American citizens. On February 7, 2020, the Commission brought together more than seventy participants from nearly all of its forty-seven listening sessions, as well as Commission members, civic leaders, and philanthropists, to hear from one another and share their work through a series of panels, breakout sessions, and presentations.
Panel 1: The Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship
Panel Chair
David Oxtoby
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Participants
Danielle Allen
Harvard University
Stephen Heintz
Rockefeller Brothers Fund
Eric Liu
Citizen University
Panel 2: Inspire a Culture of Commitment to American Democracy and One Another
Panel Chair
Eric Liu
Citizen University
Participants
Serene Jones
Union Theological Seminary
Mina Layba
City Manager’s Office, City of Thousand Oaks
Cameron Patterson
Moton Museum
John Wood Jr.
Better Angels
Panel 3: Dramatically Expand Civic Bridging Capacity
Panel Chair
Stephen Heintz
Rockefeller Brothers Fund
Participants
Kim Covington
Arizona Community Foundation
Vanessa Grossl
BGCF365
Howard Parr
Akron Civic Theater
Jon Pritchett
Mississippi Center for Public Policy
Panel 4: Empower Voters
Panel Chair
Danielle Allen
Harvard University
Participants
Habon Abdulle
Women Organizing Women Network
Trey Grayson
former Secretary of State, Kentucky
Julio Medina
Exodus Transitional Community
Emergency Meeting of the Commission
March 27, 2020
Virtual Meeting
The full Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship met via web conference to discuss the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the content of the final report and the plans for its release. Commission members agreed to modify the report slightly to account for the impact of the pandemic on the nation and to revise one of the thirty-one recommendations to reflect the effect of emergencies on voter access to the polls. The Commission agreed the pandemic amplified the challenges and obstacles they sought to address in their work and therefore to release the report as planned in June.
Meeting Chairs
Danielle Allen
Harvard University
Stephen Heintz
Rockefeller Brothers Fund
Eric Liu
Citizen University
Release Event: Our Common Purpose: Reinventing American Democracy for the 21st Century
June 11, 2020
Virtual Event
Our Common Purpose: Reinventing American Democracy for the 21st Century, the final report of the Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship, was released via an online webinar. The one-hour event included a video presentation of the Commission’s work, an overview of the report’s six strategies and thirty-one recommendations, and comments by Commission members and featured speakers. The audience included members of the Academy, implementation Champions, listening session participants, and special guests.
Speakers
Danielle Allen
Harvard University
David Brooks
The New York Times
Stephen Heintz
Rockefeller Brothers Fund
Eric Liu
Citizen University
David Oxtoby
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Judy Woodruff
PBS
Project
Making Justice Accessible
The two projects of the Making Justice Accessible initiative address the challenge of providing legal services to low-income Americans. The first project, on Data Collection and Legal Services for Low-Income Americans, will identify the sources of existing data on legal services and unrepresented civil litigation nationwide. The project will also create a blueprint for future data collection efforts, including establishing a research agenda for scholars, practitioners, and policy-makers. Participants include representatives of the courts, legal aid providers, and foundations as well as legal scholars and social scientists. In the fall of 2019, Microsoft’s pro bono office approached the Academy about this project; the interactions led to a joint, data-gathering pilot project between Microsoft, members of the data working group, and the Texas state courts. Participants are poised to act upon, and amplify, the Academy’s recommendations once the report is published in late 2020.
The second project, on Designing Legal Services for the 21st Century, will gather information about the national need for improved legal access and advance a set of clear, national recommendations for closing the “justice gap” between supply of and demand for legal services. In the fall of 2019, project leaders enlisted the research assistance of associates from the offices of WilmerHale and began drafting the final report, on schedule to be released in September 2020.
The Making Justice Accessible initiative emerged from a 2015 symposium sponsored by the Academy’s Exploratory Fund on the state of legal services for low-income Americans.
Data Collection and Legal Services for Low-Income Americans
Project Chairs
Mark Hansen
University of Chicago
Rebecca Sandefur
Arizona State University
Designing Legal Services for the 21st Century
Project Chairs
John Levi
Legal Services Corporation; Sidley Austin LLP
Martha Minow
Harvard Law School
Kenneth Frazier
Merck & Co.
Project Staff
Tania Munz
John Tessitore
Funder
David M. Rubenstein Enhancement Fund
Project Publication
“Access to Justice,” Dædalus, edited by Lincoln Caplan, Lance Liebman & Rebecca Sandefur (2019)