Advantaging Authoritarianism: the U.S. Electoral System
The U.S. electoral system is uniquely advantaging authoritarian actors and behaviors. Electoral reform can help shift incentives and outcomes.
Shaping the Democracy of Tomorrow
Our Work
Sustainable democracy requires governing institutions that are representative of and responsive to the needs of all — not just the few or the loudest.
Today, the authoritarian threat doesn’t just come from specific politicians or political factions. Authoritarian-enabling features of our system — such as the non-representative composition of Congress or the inability of political parties to preserve democratic norms — are feeding cycles of polarization and rewarding authoritarian politics.
Stopping this threat requires bold and ambitious long-term strategies to ensure that the Democracy of Tomorrow better reflects the will of all Americans and is oriented towards collaboratively addressing our country’s most pressing challenges.
- Make our political parties more responsible promoters of democracy.
- Replace winner-take-all elections with more proportional systems of representation.
- Legalize fusion voting to help break the two-party doom loop.
Begun to shift momentum towards proportional multi-member districts through original research, organizing hundreds of top political scientists to publicly speak out, and generating new media coverage.
Several provisions of the Protecting Our Democracy Act, a package of democratic guardrails reforms we helped Congressional leaders assemble, were signed into law by President Biden.
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Learn how fusion voting can break the doom loop Learn how fusion voting can break the doom loop
Americans Deserve a House of Representatives That Better Represents Them
A right-wing minority has outsized power in the House today. With proportional representation, that problem would be much less likely.
January 8 Was A Terrible Day For Brazilian Democracy. It Was Not Another January 6.
Unlike in the United States, major political allies of Bolsonaro acknowledged his opponent’s win right out of the gate and spoke out quickly in support of democracy.
Pro-Democracy Centrist Voters and Moderate Party File Brief Challenging New Jersey’s Unconstitutional Ban on Fusion Voting
Today, the Moderate Party and three centrist voters filed a brief in the N.J. Appellate Division explaining why state laws prohibiting fusion voting violate the New Jersey Constitution.
I’m suing New Jersey because I shouldn’t have to vote for a Democrat or a Republican
Every election, I’m barred from honestly expressing my views at the ballot box.
The Crisis of Winner-Take-All Elections and the Potential of Proportional Representation
On November 15th, Fix Our House, New America, and Protect Democracy hosted a discussion about the collapse of competitive elections in our democracy and pathways for reform.
Reforming National Emergencies
Protect Democracy has led in the effort to reform the national emergency system to build stronger checks on the use of national emergencies.
Over 200 Democracy Scholars Call on Congress to End Single-Member Congressional Districts and Adopt Proportional Representation
More than 200 political scientists, legal scholars, and historians released an open letter calling on Congress to reject the United States’ winner-take-all elections.
Why Would Viktor Orbán, the Self-Proclaimed Champion of Illiberal Democracy, Find Inspiration in the U.S. Electoral System?
Protect Democracy's Farbod Faraji partners with Lee Drutman to write about the US's role in Viktor Orbán's rise to power.
Bringing Back Fusion Voting: Michael Tomasco & William Kibler v. NJ Division of Elections et al.
In New Jersey and other states, anti-democratic extremism and polarization are rapidly accelerating. Fusion voting is the off-ramp we need to break this cycle.
Without Fusion Voting, It’s an Uphill Climb for Independents Like Missouri’s John Wood
It doesn’t have to be this way. Missouri and dozens of other states could bring back fusion voting, which was lawful and practiced nationwide throughout the 1800s.
