American Democracy and Civic Participation in 2021: A Conversation with Danielle Allen and Eric Liu
The American public’s trust in government is at an all-time low. Political partisanship, a disrupted media environment, and economic inequality weaken our faith in the system. Meanwhile, money in politics, barriers to voting, and distorted representation in elected office amplify the voices of a select few at the expense of countless others. In the last Presidential election, we saw claims of election fraud lead to violent attacks on the U.S. capitol, threatening the peaceful transfer of power.
Despite all of this, many Americans still believe that a healthy democracy with responsive political institutions can be achieved.
Featured speakers included Chicago Community Trust President & CEO Helene Gayle; Danielle Allen, the James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University and Director of Harvard’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics; and Eric Liu, Cofounder and CEO of Citizen University, two cochairs of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences’ Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship which recently released the report: Our Common Purpose: Reinventing American Democracy for the 21st Century. Academy President David Oxtoby provided opening remarks.
About Conversations With...
Conversations With... is a speaker series hosted by The Chicago Community Trust that explores high-profile topics with some of today’s most strategic thinkers in the philanthropic, civic, business and policy sectors. From charitable giving trends to growing wealth disparities, these conversations provide a deeper understanding of the issues.
