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.

Why Is This Important

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.

The kinds of outcomes we seek

  1. Make our political parties more responsible promoters of democracy.
  2. Replace winner-take-all elections with more proportional systems of representation.
  3. Legalize fusion voting to help break the two-party doom loop.

What Impact Have We Had

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.

Impact in the News

The US Capitol with a blue tint over it.

More Than Red and Blue: Conclusion

This report exists because political scientists are alarmed by the real possibility of serious democratic backsliding in the United States.

October 17, 2023

  • Shaping the Democracy of Tomorrow
  • Reports
A ballot in black and white.

Sources of Change: Prioritizing Parties

We outline two seemingly contradictory observations about political parties in the United States: Parties are essential to democracy, but U.S. institutions are often hostile to them.

October 17, 2023

  • Shaping the Democracy of Tomorrow
  • Reports