The Democracy Group

The anniversary of January 6th recentered concerns about U.S. democratic backsliding. Talk of election-related violence, insurrection, civil unrest, and irregular transitions has Americans asking where their democracy stands relative to those of other nations. Comparative political science has long seen U.S. trends as part of liberal democracy’s global problems. Pippa Norris joins the Science of Politics for a special wide-ranging conversation with Matt Grossmann about where America stands out from and reflects international trends. They discuss January 6th but move to consider the American party system, election integrity, populism, trust, and the possibility of electoral reforms. Guest: Pippa Norris, Harvard University Studies: Cultural Backlash; In Praise of SkepticismAdditional InformationScience of Politics PodcastMore shows from The Democracy Group

One year after the January 6th assault on the U.S. Capitol, we take a close look at America's political divide with two journalists who covered the calamitous events on that day and the responses to them. Our guests are Christa Case Bryant, Congressional correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor, and Story Hinckley, the Monitor's National political correspondent. We discuss whether America is more polarized than it was one year ago and the prospects for finding common ground in Congress and across the country.A Washington Post - University of Maryland opinion poll published on New Year's Day confirmed that Americans have totally different views of the 2020 election results. While large majorities of Democrats and independent voters say there was no evidence of widespread fraud, more than 60% of Republicans say there was.In their reporting throughout the year, both of our guests sought answers to complex questions about what caused people to storm the Capitol, and why Democrats and Republicans have opposing views about voter access and election laws. In this episode, we also examine the role of the media and individual reporters in covering the state of polarization in America today.Additional InformationLet's Find Common Ground PodcastMore shows from The Democracy Group

In this episode, we talk with Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, JMU Health Sciences '05, about his experiences fighting for democracy on January 6, 2021. "These people were minutes, seconds, feet away from hanging the Vice President. Just sit with that," says Officer Dunn. He is speaking out for justice and accountability because, "People are trying to rewrite history right in front of us...Terrorism is what they did that day. In my mind, they're coming back. We have to hold them accountable."Additional InformationDemocracy Matters PodcastMore shows from The Democracy Group

Jamelle Bouie and Nicole Hemmer return to the show this week for a special conversation looking back on the siege of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — and looking forward at the prospects for democracy in the post-Trump era. Both the country’s political leaders and the media, our guests say, have been reluctant to embrace a rhetoric of emergency to define the moment. And as lawmakers investigate the attack, the window is closing on enacting genuine reforms to ensure voting rights and fair elections.Additional InformationDemocracy in Danger PodcastMore shows from The Democracy Group

For nearly 250 years, America has served as a test case for a social experiment that few could have ever conceived of — a constitutional federal republic. However, when one considers our history of massacres, slavery, civil war, and battles waged over voting rights, among other injustices, one can easily find reason to be doubtful of this experiment’s success. Given current levels of political polarization, it can seem naïve to think of America as a “done deal”. But, before we acquiesce to a failed experiment, let’s consider the role of dialogue in shaping our American experiment and how it might be able to help this experiment succeed.The Democracy Group and Ideos Institute present a panel discussion with Kamy Akhavan, Executive Director of USC’s Center for the Political Future; Richard Davies, renowned journalist; John Gamba, technology entrepreneur, and a participant in the Ideos led dialogue that inspired the documentary, Dialogue Lab: America; and Dr. Carah Ong Whaley, Associate Director for the James Madison Center for Civic Engagement.A recording and transcripts of this event are available at democracygroup.org.HostThrough a coalition of organizations, led by Ideos Institute, the National Day of Dialogue is a series of virtual events, social media campaigns, and bridging resources on January 5, 2022. It is also the premiere date for the documentary film, Dialogue Lab: America, launching a powerful movement of empathy and action in pursuit of a better future for our nation.

In 2012, President Barack Obama signed into law the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act, otherwise known as the STOCK Act. The intent was to ban insider trading from members of Congress — a subject that gained national media attention on both sides of the aisle in the months and years after the financial crisis.But the law did not do what it was supposed to.Weston unpacks the STOCK Act and where it falls short and talks with one of the members of Congress who’s leading a bipartisan effort to fix the law and put an end to insider trading by members of Congress.Guests:Kedric Payne, Senior Director of Ethics and the General Counsel of the Campaign Legal CenterRep. Chip Roy (R-TX)Additional InformationSwamp Stories PodcastMore shows from The Democracy Group

Robert C. Lieberman is the Krieger-Eisenhower Professor of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University. Kenneth M. Roberts is the Richard J. Schwartz Professor of Government and Binenkorb Director of Latin American Studies at Cornell University. David A. Bateman is an associate professor in the Government Department at Cornell University. Robert and Kenneth (along with Suzanne Mettler) coedited the book Democratic Resilience: Can the United States Withstand Rising Polarization?  David is a contributor to the volume. His chapter is "Elections, Polarization, and Democratic Resilience."Key HighlightsWhy did polarization become so severe in the United States?When did pernicious polarization start in America?Is polarization the fault of just one party or both?Discussion on possible judicial reforms as a solutionCan America overcome this episode of severe polarization?A full transcript is available at www.democracyparadox.com or a short review of Democratic Resilience: Can the United States Withstand Rising Polarization?  here.Additional InformationDemocracy Paradox PodcastMore shows from The Democracy GroupDemocratic Resilience by Suzanne Mettler, Robert C. Lieberman, and Kenneth M. RobertsFollow Robert C. Lieberman on Twitter @r_liebermanFollow David Bateman on Twitter @DavidAlexBatema

We continue our Best of 2021 episodes with an  episode from the Democracy Works podcast, hosted by Jenna Spinelle, Christopher Beem, Michael Berkman. Anne Applebaum is a staff writer at The Atlantic, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, and a senior fellow at The Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. She joined the McCourtney Institute for Democracy for a virtual event on February 17, 2021 to discuss her most recent book, Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism. This episode includes the closing remarks from Applebaum's lecture, followed by a Q&A with Democracy Works host Jenna Spinelle that covers the future of the Republican Party, how the Cold War served as a unifier for Republicans and Democrats, and why she believes economic inequality and democratic erosion are not as closely linked as some people think.  InformationDemocracy Works PodcastMore shows from The Democracy GroupVideo of Applebaum's Feb. 17 lectureTwilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of AuthoritarianismApplebaum's work in The Atlantic

We continue our Best of 2021 episodes with an  episode from the the Future Hindsight podcast, hosted by Mila Atmos.Colin Jerolmack is an environmental sociologist and author of Up to Heaven and Down to Hell: Fracking, Freedom, and Community in an American Town. We discuss the public-private paradox and the tragedy of the commons, as well as the undemocratic aspects of American property rights.Public-Private ParadoxAmerica has clearly delineated public and private domains: the public domain is regulated, and the private domain is not. A public-private paradox occurs when a decision made in the private domain creates issues in the public domain. In the case of fracking, choosing to allow drilling in your land is a private decision. That decision creates many externalities such as overuse of roads, unwanted sights and sounds, contaminated well water for neighborhood, which harms the public good.Tragedy of the CommonsThe Tragedy of the Commons explains how individual decisions pertaining to common resources can lead to degradation of that resource, hurting everyone. It’s in everyone’s own best interest to use as much of a common resource as possible, because if they don’t, someone else will. Unfortunately, when everyone does this the shared resource is often quickly degraded. In the case of fracking, many landowners decided to lease land because their neighbors were doing it, and choosing not to lease would mean absorbing the externalities of fracking without any compensation.American Property RightsAmerican landowners own their land “up to heaven, and down to hell,” meaning they own both the air and subsurface rights along with their land. This is quite different from almost all other countries, where subsurface mineral rights are owned, regulated, and sold by government bodies. Landowners in the US make entirely private decisions to allow oil and gas drilling on their property without the consent of their neighbors, and in some cases without any regulation from local, state, or federal governments.FIND OUT MORE:Colin Jerolmack is a professor of sociology and environmental studies at NYU, where he also teaches courses on human-animal relations and chairs the Environmental Studies Department. His first book, The Global Pigeon explores how human-animal relations shape our experience of urban life. His second book, Up To Heaven and Down to Hell: Fracking, Freedom, and Community in an American Town follows residents of a rural Pennsylvania community who leased their land for gas drilling in order to understand how the exercise of property rights can undermine the commonwealth. He also co-edited the volume Approaches to Ethnography: Modes of Representation and Analysis in Participant Observation with Shamus Khan. He lives in New York City with his wife and two sons.You can follow Colin on Twitter @jerolmack.Additional InformationFuture Hindsight PodcastMore shows from The Democracy Group

We continue our Best of 2021 episodes with an  episode from the Democracy Matters podcast.For Constitution Day 2021 and to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the 26th Amendment to the United States Constitution, we talk with Carolyn Quilloin Coleman who started her activism work as a teenager protesting segregation in Savannah, Georgia. In April 1969, she organized the NAACP-sponsored Youth Mobilization conference in Washington, D.C. The gathering brought together 2,000 young people from 33 states to lobby Congress in support of youth voting rights.Additional InformationDemocracy Matters PodcastMore shows from The Democracy Group