The Meaning of Democracy in Nine Words
With everything that appears to be at stake in the 2024 presidential election, it sounds off-key to refer to it as a coin-flip. But given the odds of either candidate and party prevailing over their opponents, that is what it is. The situation has prompted me to return to a pithy definition of democracy from the political scientist Adam Przeworski: “Democracy is a system in which parties lose elections.”
“Democracy Is So Much Larger Than Politics”
In this interview, Kristen Cambell, CEO of Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement, shares how her organization is working to shore up “civil society—the parts of democracy, leadership, and active citizenship that may not involve government (or even institutions), but compel us toward a full spirit and vision of what it means to live in a self-governing society. Systems, processes, and institutions will only ever be as strong as the civic values, democratic culture, and social norms that surround them.”