Shaping the Democracy of Tomorrow

Our Work

Democracy requires institutions that inspire faith — that our political system is representative and responsive, that civic participation is valuable, and that democracy can deliver for the people.

Why Is This Important

For many voters, recent elections have felt existential. They’re not wrong: The stakes are as high as they appear to be. This seemingly endless cycle is no accident: Our electoral system is particularly vulnerable to the global authoritarian wave. Polarization and a strict two-party system have empowered a small authoritarian faction to gain control of one of the two parties. As a result, every election has become an us-versus-them battle wherein democracy itself seems to hang in the balance.

A country as large and as diverse as the United States demands a democracy that facilitates healthy competition, robust representation, and pluralism in our politics. Yet our electoral system: disadvantages minority voices; stifles competition; limits the number of political parties; escalates extremism; limits voter choice; and exacerbates political violence.

Stopping the authoritarian 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 toward collaboratively addressing our country’s most pressing challenges.

The kinds of outcomes we seek

Replacing winner-take-all elections with a more proportional system of representation.
Advocating for more and better political parties that responsibly promote democracy.
Legalizing fusion voting to help break the two-party doom loop.

What Impact Have We Had

Shifted momentum towards proportional multi-member districts through original research, organizing hundreds of top political scientists to publicly speak out, and generating new media coverage.

Advanced several provisions of the Protecting Our Democracy Act, a package of democratic guardrails reforms we helped congressional leaders assemble, which President Biden signed into law.