People who want to improve the world often encounter problems of collective action (how to get many individuals to act in concert), of discourse (how to talk and think productively about contentious matters), and of exclusion. To get things done, they must form or join and sustain functional groups, and through them, develop skills and virtues that help them to be effective and responsible civic actors.
Peter Levine, one of America's leading scholars and practitioners of civic engagement, identifies the general challenges that confront people who ask the citizens' question and explores solutions in his most recent book, What Should We Do? A Theory of Civic Life. Democracy Works host Chris Beem also thinks through these questions in his most recent book, The Seven Democratic Virtues: What You Can Do to Overcome Tribalism and Save Democracy. In this conversation, Levine and Beem discuss how their approaches differ and how individual and collective actions can't be separated from each other when it comes to civic engagement.
Levine is the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Lincoln Filene Professor of Citizenship & Public Affairs in Tufts University's Jonathan Tisch College of Civic Life.
What Should We Do? A Theory of Civic Life
The Seven Democratic Virtues: What You Can Do to Overcome Tribalism and Save Our Democracy
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Jan-Werner Müller on democracy's rules
Does Congress promote partisan gridlock? [rebroadcast]
Pete Davis is dedicated to the hard work of democracy
Masha Gessen on the Moscow duel
Walter Shaub on transparency, ethics, and democracy
A different take on local news and democracy
How to end democracy's doom loop [rebroadcast]
Democracy as a way of life
Your guide to ranked-choice voting [rebroadcast]
Is it possible to overdo democracy? [rebroadcast]
Looking back to move forward
The people vs. the bureaucrats in Flint
There is no "I" in democracy
How democracies can win the war on reality
Conspiracism finds a home on the intellectual right
The Federalist Society's ideas have consequences for democracy
Colored Conventions show us where democracy really happens
Can pranksters save democracy?
Public schools, not government schools
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