Reforming American Democracy

Last night, I finished reading the book Tyranny of the Minority by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt. It’s an excellent book that provides not just good background information about what is currently going on politically in the United States, but also a list of actions the authors propose to improve our Constitution and strengthen our democracy. Of course, there are many things I don’t agree with. I think the authors put a lot of blame on the “institutions,” whereas I believe most of the blame should fall on us, the people, for not embracing and acting on our civic duties. I’m working on the book review, and my hope is that it will be ready by Thursday.

While completing my reading last night, I came across the following:

“The conversation about democratic reform is beginning. In 2020, the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences issued a report, titled Our Common Purpose, which laid out a multi-faceted reform agenda for American democracy.”1

My first thought was, “What? Where was I that I missed this report?”

It turns out the report was published in June 2020, and a quick search through my memory file reminded me that I was in Afghanistan at the time. I guess I had an excuse for not finding out about it, I was more focused on other kinds of reports back then and trying to manage my responsibilities in country. But now it’s October 2025, a little over five years later, and I’ve just discovered it. Well, that shows the importance of reading good books. I suppose the document wasn’t deemed important enough for the algorithm to push it to the top of my online headlines. News got lost in the COVID world.

Anyway, I’m glad I found it. One of the purposes of my blog is to pass along things I’m learning along the way, so today I’m going to share the document with my WP community and provide some highlights in case you also missed it five years ago.

I want to start by saying that the report was produced by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780, during the American Revolution, by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other Founding Fathers.2 The organization is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

You can find the full report here.

The report presents six strategies along with their corresponding recommendations. Below are the strategies and some of the recommendations that interested me the most.3

Strategy 1: Achieve Equality of Voice and Representation. 

Recommendations: 

(1.2) Introduce ranked-choice voting in presidential, congressional, and state elections. 

(1.5) Amend the Constitution to authorize the regulation of election contributions and spending to eliminate undue influence of money in our political system, and to protect the rights of all Americans to free speech, political participation, and meaningful representation in government.

Strategy 2: Empower Voters. 

Recommendations:

(2.2) Change federal election day to Veterans Day to honor the service of veterans and the sacrifices they have made in defense of our constitutional democracy, and to ensure that voting can occur on a day that many people have off from work. Align state election calendars with this new federal election day.

(2.5) Establish, through congressional legislation, that voting in federal elections be a requirement of citizenship, just as jury service is in the states. All eligible voters would have to participate, in person or by mail, or submit a valid reason for nonparticipation. Eligible voters who do not do so would receive a citation and small fine. (Participation could, of course, include voting for “none of the above.”)

Strategy 3: Ensure the Responsiveness of Government Institutions. 

Recommendations:

(3.2) Design structured and engaging mechanisms for every member of Congress to interact directly and regularly with a random sample of their constituents in an informed and substantive conversation about policy areas under consideration.

(3.4) Expand the breadth of participatory opportunities at municipal and state levels for citizens to shape decision-making, budgeting, and other policy-making processes.

Strategy 4: Dramatically Expand Civic Bridging Capacity. 

Recommendations:

(4.2) Activate a range of funders to invest in the leadership capacity of the so-called civic one million: the catalytic leaders who drive civic renewal in communities around the country. Use this funding to encourage these leaders to support innovations in bridge-building and participatory constitutional democracy.

My note: Training a million community leaders across the U.S. to help them develop and promote new ways to bring people together across divides and make democracy more participatory and inclusive. Yes—sign me up!

Strategy 5: Build Civic Information Architecture that Supports Common Purpose. 

Recommendations:

(5.2) Through state and/or federal legislation, subsidize innovation to reinvent the public functions that social media have displaced: for instance, with a tax on digital advertising that could be deployed in a public media fund that would support experimental approaches to public social media platforms as well as local and regional investigative journalism.

Strategy 6: Inspire a Culture of Commitment to AmericanConstitutional Democracy and One Another. 

Recommendations:

(6.1) Establish a universal expectation of a year of national service and dramatically expand funding for service programs or fellowships that would offer young people paid service opportunities. Such opportunities should be made available not only in AmeriCorps or the military but also in local programs offered by municipal governments, local news outlets, and nonprofit organizations.

(6.5) Invest in civic educators and civic education for all ages and in all communities through curricula, ongoing program evaluations, professional development for teachers, and a federal award program that recognizes civic-learning achievements. These measures should encompass lifelong (K–12 and adult) civic-learning experiences with the full community in mind.

I hope you found this information useful, and please let me know if you were aware of this document. If this is your first time seeing it, then it’s worth pondering why we’re not seeing quality reporting like this. 

For those outside the United States, the report provides some good recommendations that could be put into action in your country. If your country is already implementing some of them, I would love to hear from you.

  1. Levitsky, Steven and Ziblatt, Daniel. Tyranny of The Minority. (p.238) New York: Crown Publishing Group, 2023. ↩︎
  2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Academy_of_Arts_and_Sciences ↩︎
  3. American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Our Common Purpose: Reinventing American Democracy for the 21st Century (pp. 6-9) Cambridge, Mass.: American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2020. ↩︎

57 thoughts on “Reforming American Democracy”

  1. This is my first time seeing this document. I’m impressed with how comprehensive it is. I have read about ranked-choice voting, and it seems to be independent of political parties which makes a lot of sense to me as it has the potential to decrease polarization. Thank you for sharing this information!

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    1. You’re very welcome, JoAnna. I’m an independent voter, so ranked-choice voting and many other items in this document made a lot of sense to me as well. It’s sad that this document didn’t receive more attention when it was published.

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  3. In the 1990s, I was one of the leaders in the worldwide Direct Democracy movement. In that context, “tyranny of the minority” is exactly what it means – tyranny by a small number of people. There is also “tyranny of the majority” – which is exactly what would happen in a direct democracy. The majority of like-minded people would rule the country without taking into consideration the rights of other people. The current system is set up the way it is to prevent this. Certain people don’t like that, however, and keep trying to erode our election system. I am absolutely opposed to ranked-choice voting. It does not lead to fairness. It leads to one party becoming dominant. It has not worked in California. We don’t want it in Arizona. Population density also has to be considered. The Electoral College gives a more balanced result between cities and rural areas. Again, some people don’t like that, so they want to scrap the Electoral College to benefit themselves. I believe the US Supreme Court was wrong to rule in favor of allowing Big Money in our elections. That needs to be changed. But the more people try to change things in the name of “fairness,” the more unfair things become. There are too many groups and individuals trying to manipulate and control our elections. What they really want is rigged elections. Just because the American Academy of Arts and Sciences was founded in 1780 doesn’t mean it hasn’t been corrupted and influenced by outside forces. I see a lot of naive people in America who will swallow any scam.

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    1. Great comment, Dawn. I mostly agree with you. I still believe the big issue is us and not so much the “institutions.” Even if we changed everything tomorrow, things wouldn’t get better until people start doing the right thing. I’m with you about corruption and influence, heck, even the Christian church (all denominations) has been corrupted. Thank you.

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  4. Wow – I hadn’t seen this before. I had a newborn and a four-year-old in lockdown conditions so that’s my excuse.

    I’m so grateful you shared this. Reduce undue influence of money, voting on Veterans Day and train leaders to bridge the divide – what thoughtful recommendations! Thanks, Edward.

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  5. Excellent recommendations that could change the social and political landscape if implemented. “Yes—sign me up!” Me, too! 🙋🏼‍♀️ Thank you for reading valuable books and for summarizing for us. A sidenote that may seem unrelated, but you’ll understand… while at the lake this last summer visiting my cousin, I had a thought wash over me when watching an American flag flying on a boat. It struck me that I’d rather spend time focused on what I can do to help this country rather than criticizing all that’s wrong.

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    1. You’re very welcome, my friend. Great point about focusing on what we can do to help instead of criticizing. I’ve learned that constructive criticism is a good thing, as long as we’re providing meaningful feedback to help improve a particular situation. We just need to be involved, and I know a lot of people are just criticizing everything, and when asked for recommendations, you get the typical “I don’t know 🤷🏻,” which used to irritate me a lot when I was in the Army. After moving around every two or three years for so long, I can finally settle in one place and start contributing. I just gave a bunch of feedback on our city’s 15-year comprehensive plan and joined our chamber of commerce to push for a passenger rail connecting our Quad Cities metropolitan area to Chicago. So I’m with you, we need to do our part to solve the issues. A little long, but your sidenote stimulated my brain a bit. 🤓

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  7. Oh my goodness. Thank you so much, Edward. I love how diligent you are in tracking down resources and sharing. This is a gem…appreciate the link. When you wrote, “One of the purposes of my blog is to pass along things I’m learning along the way, so today I’m going to share the document with my WP community and provide some highlights in case you also missed it five years ago” I smiled. You do that so well. A dose of encouragement…a game plan…a way forward with strategy in mind? Welcome, welcome, welcome right now. And probably no surprise, but I’m cheering for #6 for the reason you stated early on. It’s in our hands…reclaiming what’s slipping away. Thank you so much my friend! 💝

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    1. You’re so welcome, my friend, and thank you for your kind words. That’s the beauty of blogging, it gives you an opportunity to form a community and share important content with the hope that we can grow together and improve our lives. You can’t get that anywhere else, at least not with the global reach you find here on WordPress.

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  9. That sounds like a powerful and eye-opening read. I really like how you broke it down and shared the key points. Great review and post Edward…

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  12. Already in Strategy 1 I found something meaningful: “Amend the Constitution to authorize the regulation of election contributions and spending to eliminate undue influence of money in our political system.” Something that by itself would allow things to flow with greater clarity and equality. Isn’t it interesting that quality recommendations were lost in the messiness of the world? Very convenient for those who were benefiting from the abusive setting. Thank you, Edward, for always bringing to light pertinent information. It helps me to get a better view of the bigger picture, including the backstage “games.” With appreciation, sending light and blessings your way and wishing you a peaceful day! ✨🙏🍀

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    1. Thank you so much, Susana. It’s absolutely amazing how that happened. People are trying to convey their desires for a better society to politicians, who then reject or refuse to listen, making citizens angry, with terrible consequences that we can see in the U.S. and around the world. Like you said, some of them are benefiting from the abusive setting. Always a blessing to have your presence here, my friend. 🙏🏼

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  15. I love the suggestions and just for one, #6 – the year of service, reminding me of the CCC, put into place after the great depression in the US, helping the country get back on its feet, and giving people trades, experience, and money to put back into the country and to support their families –

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    1. That one is a great alternative, especially with so many high schoolers who don’t know what to do after they graduate or don’t have the resources. That will give them purpose and direction, and help them figure out what they want to do once they complete the assignment. Thank you, Beth.

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    2. That’s the first thing I thought of also Beth, the CCC. They were so instrumental in building our park systems.
      Thanks, Edward, for boiling down this 84-page document. These ideas do sound great. I can’t help but wonder what we’d have to do to make any of them possible?
      I might put the points in reverse order and invest in civic education first. It’s imperative to equip people with the knowledge and skills to understand how to participate in the process. Right now, it feels like no politicians have any idea what civics is and that at its most basic it requires civil behavior.

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  17. These ideas are ringing a faint bell, although I don’t remember where from. What strikes me immediately is that these reforms would need to be carefully scaffolded for them to work as intended to reform something as complex as a democracy. It’s an intriguing thought.

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    1. Absolutely, Liz. This is one of those documents filled with ideas where, if we’re generous, maybe about 50% of their recommendations will make it through after some lengthy discussions among different ideologies. It’s probably a good start for members of Congress to take back to their districts and debate with their constituents in order to refine some of the points before bringing them back to Congress to work them some more.

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  18. Sorry I had to stop with 1, ranked choice voting. This always makes the party in power even more in control. I would try proportional representation at first in the House. If my party in New York, The Phil Gennuso Party gets 20% of the vote I get 20% of the House seats. This.would end the evils of Gerrymandering and finally end the corrupt duopoly.

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    1. It makes sense what you’re saying, and I think their 1.1 recommends expanding the House to make it more representative of the population. Between what you’re proposing and their recommendation, there’s a sweet spot that could fix some of the issues in this country. Thank you, Phil, this is the kind of dialogue that needs to occur instead of the craziness happening in Congress.

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  20. I haven’t heard of this report, Edward. These are good suggestions. I think voting on Veterans’ Day is a great idea. I always wondered why it wasn’t a national holiday when many people would have the day off from work.

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    1. Thank you, Mary. Yeah, I don’t understand it either. It seems like voting on a holiday or on a Sunday, as some have suggested, would make voting easier, but I guess the parties don’t want it that way.

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    2. Yes, Edward. I read the book soon after it was issued and am familiar with the suggestions. Among the best suggestions I have encountered are to end the Electoral College and make it easier to amend the Constitution. Hard as it will be to achieve such things, it is important to put them forward in the hope that the day will come that the country will become more open to working together to improve the lives of all.

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      1. They absolutely have some interesting recommendations, and I’m all for making changes to the Constitution easier. I also like what they said about term limits for Supreme Court justices. I’m still struggling a bit with the Electoral College and the Senate filibuster rule and need to read more perspectives about them. I think I’m leaning toward eliminating both, but I keep thinking about what’s going on in other countries, like France, where the government has been through several prime ministers under Macron, and that gives me pause.

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