Democracy on the Precipice, Threats to American Democracy and How We Can Overcome Them

Featuring: SNF Ithaca Visiting Fellow Archon Fung

Director, Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

The aftermath of the 2020 election manifests a fragility of American democratic institutions that few had thought possible. And we may face even more challenges this election year. We’ll review some of the critical details of the 2021 democratic crisis and then propose four longer-term developments that have weakened our foundations for successful democratic governance: a widening “aperture” of ideologies, political polarization, unresponsive government, and declining trust. More speculatively, we’ll consider some ambitious paths of structural reform that may strengthen American democracy going forward: expanding beyond two parties, recursive representation to rebuild the bridges that connect citizens to government, and increasing the integrity of the informational conditions that democracy requires.

Archon Fung directs the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation and is the Winthrop Laflin McCormack Professor of Citizenship and Self-Government at the Harvard Kennedy School. He examines policies and practices that aim to deepen democracy, especially through public participation, deliberation, and transparency. His books include Full Disclosure: The Perils and Promise of Transparency (Cambridge University Press, with Mary Graham and David Weil) and Empowered Participation: Reinventing Urban Democracy (Princeton University Press). He served as Academic Dean of the Kennedy School from 2014-2018 and was its Acting Dean in 2015. He holds a Ph.D. in political science and S.B.S. in physics and philosophy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

Registration is required as space for this event is limited.