American Institutions, Society, and the Public Good
Since its founding, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences has worked to promote a “strong and virtuous” nation. Today this effort involves projects designed to advance the state of scholarship about the nation’s institutions and to develop innovative solutions to challenges facing American society. Projects in this area interpret the term “institution” broadly, focusing on all of the constituent elements of government and civil society. These projects seek to examine the impact of institutions on broad sectors of American society. They address how individual citizens interact with social structures, how these experiences prepare people to make a positive contribution to a diverse America, and how these institutions are changing and might operate differently in the twenty-first century. The Academy shares this research through publications, conferences, and active outreach to Members, policy-makers, and the public at large.
American Institutions, Society, and the Public Good
Program Advisory Group
Danielle Allen
Harvard University
Thomas Bender
New York University
Alan Dachs
The Fremont Group
Lee Epstein
Washington University in St. Louis
Susan Hanson
Clark University
Antonia Hernández
California Community Foundation
William Poorvu
Harvard Business School
Kenneth Prewitt
Columbia University
Frances McCall Rosenbluth
Yale University
James Stone
Plymouth Rock Assurance Corporation
PROJECT
Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship
The Academy was founded to serve as a resource to the citizens and leaders of a new nation, promoting the spread of useful knowledge.
The founders of the Academy and the country recognized that the engagement of a well-informed citizenry was essential to the future of the democracy. However, both the nation’s citizenry and the world it inhabits have changed and, as a result, it is necessary to re-examine our ideas of what defines a “good citizen.”
The Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship has a single aim: to enable more Americans to obtain the values, knowledge, and skills needed for participation in a democratic society. The Commission will create a working definition of effective citizenship, compile data on current practices, identify the factors that impede or advance civic engagement, highlight promising local initiatives around the country, and make recommendations for action that communities can implement. The Commission’s work will be animated by four broad questions:
- What are the primary points of citizens’ interaction with the institutions of civil society, and what determines their level of civic participation?
- Which forms of engagement best exemplify and help individuals develop the practices of effective citizenship?
- How will these practices change as the demographic composition of the nation changes?
- How have technological and media transformations altered opportunities for and the experience of civic engagement?
The Commission plans to hold four or five meetings over the course of two years. These meetings will explore the areas described above, as well as lead to at least two publications. The first will be a primer on current data on civic engagement. The second will be the Commission’s final report with recommendations for how schools, nonprofit organizations, religious institutions, business, and government can help Americans develop the skills and values that will lead to a lifetime of engaged citizenship. The Commission will also produce a set of online indicators of civic engagement that will be maintained over time and can serve as a resource for those interested in questions related to civic engagement.
The Academy plans to make use of its Local Program Committees to help discuss the ongoing work of the Commission, gather insight and recommendations from leaders across the country, and disseminate the Commission’s work to diverse audiences. The Commission will also hold a series of roundtable discussions and other conversations across the country, in both rural and urban areas, to gain a better understanding of what engaged citizenship looks like and to learn about successful efforts to cultivate civic engagement. Ultimately, the Commission will lay out a plan of action for encouraging civic engagement. These recommendations will be rooted in the belief that affording opportunities for the practice of democratic citizenship are just as important as classroom education in civics, and that such recommendations should approach good citizenship as a set of habits and skills acquired over a lifetime rather than as a body of knowledge.
Commission Chairs
Danielle Allen
Harvard University
Stephen Heintz
Rockefeller Brothers Fund
Eric Liu
Citizen University; Aspen Institute Citizenship and American Identity Program
Commission Members
Sayu Bhojwani
The New American Leaders Project
Danah Boyd
Data & Society
Philip Bredesen
former Governor of Tennessee
Caroline Brettell
Southern Methodist University
David Brooks
The New York Times
Lisa Conn
Facebook
Alan Dachs
Fremont Group
Dee Davis
Center for Rural Strategies
Jonathan F. Fanton
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Sam Gill
John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Marie Griffith
Washington University in St. Louis
Hahrie Han
University of California, Santa Barbara
Antonia Hernández
California Community Foundation
Wallace Jefferson
Alexander Dubose Jefferson & Townsend
Joseph Kahne
University of California, Riverside
Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg
Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, Tufts University
Yuval Levin
National Affairs
Carolyn Lukensmeyer
National Institute for Civil Discourse
Martha McCoy
Everyday Democracy
Lynn Nottage
Columbia University
Steven Olikara
Millennial Action Project
Norman Ornstein
American Enterprise Institute
Bob Peck
FPR Partners
Pete Peterson
Pepperdine University
Alejandro Portes
University of Miami
Miles Rapoport
Harvard University
Michael Schudson
Columbia University
Sterling Speirn
National Conference on Citizenship
Marcelo Suárez-Orozco
University of California, Los Angeles
Ben Vinson
George Washington University
Diane P. Wood
U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit
Judy Woodruff
PBS NewsHour
Ethan Zuckerman
Center for Civic Media, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Project Staff
Paul Erickson
Gabriela Farrell
Julian Kronick
Natoschia Scruggs
Funder
S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation
Project Meetings \\ Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship
Citizenship in a Global Digital Era
October 25, 2017
Stanford University
Stanford, CA
Academy Members and staff gathered with leaders of social media campaigns to learn about new forms of online civic engagement and how they connect to different aspects of political engagement.
Panelists
Brittan Heller
Anti-Defamation League
Matt Mahan
Brigade
Adrian Reyna
United We Dream
Democratic Citizenship and Civic Engagement
October 26, 2017
James Irvine Foundation
San Francisco, CA
The Stephen D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation hosted a roundtable discussion for Academy Members, foundation staff, and guests on the varied dimensions of civic engagement in an increasingly diverse nation.
Panelists
Deborah Cullinan
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Thomas Ehrlich
Stanford University
Joseph Kahne
University of California, Riverside
Meeting of the Commission
April 2–3, 2018
American Academy
Cambridge, MA
The first meeting of the Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship provided an opportunity for the Chairs and Commissioners to discuss several key questions before the Commission moved forward in its work. These items included the group’s working definitions of citizenship and civic engagement, filling gaps in representation on the Commission, and discussing the intended outcomes and outreach for the work. The meeting ended with a solid plan for furthering the Commission’s work.
Workshop Chairs
Danielle Allen
Harvard University
Stephen Heintz
Rockefeller Brothers Fund
Eric Liu
Citizen University; Aspen Institute Citizenship and American Identity Program
Participants
Sayu Bhojwani
The New American Leaders Project
Philip Bredesen
former Governor of Tennessee
Caroline Brettell
Southern Methodist University
David Brooks
The New York Times
Alan Dachs
Fremont Group
Dee Davis
Center for Rural Strategies
Paul Erickson
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Jonathan F. Fanton
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Sam Gill
John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Hahrie Han
University of California, Santa Barbara
Antonia Hernández
California Community Foundation
Wallace Jefferson
Alexander Dubose Jefferson & Townsend
Joseph Kahne
University of California, Riverside
Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg
Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, Tufts University
Julian Kronick
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Yuval Levin
National Affairs
Carolyn Lukensmeyer
National Institute for Civil Discourse
Martha McCoy
Everyday Democracy
Steven Olikara
Millennial Action Project
Norman Ornstein
American Enterprise Institute
Bob Peck
FPR Partners
Pete Peterson
Pepperdine University
Miles Rapoport
Harvard University
Michael Schudson
Columbia University
Natoschia Scruggs
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Sterling Speirn
National Conference on Citizenship
Robert Townsend
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Ben Vinson
George Washington University
Diane P. Wood
U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit
Ethan Zuckerman
Center for Civic Media, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
PROJECT
Making Justice Accessible
On November 11–12, 2015, the American Academy hosted a symposium on the state of legal services for low-income Americans. Symposium participants–including federal and state judges, legal scholars, and social scientists–agreed that the legal community does not have enough reliable and accessible data to be able to address adequately the scope and variety of the crisis in legal services. The participants also agreed that the American Academy, with its diverse membership and its history of data collection projects in the humanities, could continue to be a valuable partner by organizing an issue of Dædalus on the topic, creating a research agenda for future data-collection efforts on unrepresented civil litigants, and curating solutions piloted around the country in order to advance a set of clear, national recommendations for closing the justice gap.
Data Collection and Legal Services for Low-Income Americans
Currently, data on unrepresented civil litigants is hard to find, incomplete, and inconsistent. Collection and reporting requirements vary from state to state, jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and even court to court. The first phase of the project will therefore identify, to the degree possible, all of the potential sources of existing data on legal services and unrepresented civil litigation nationwide. After an initial survey to gauge the availability and structure of existing data, the Academy will convene a group of subject-area experts to identify research questions that are currently answerable given the available data, and discuss how best to aggregate it for use by researchers.
Once the available data have been identified, the Academy will convene a group of legal scholars, social scientists, and other experts to assess the information and discuss what more can be done with the currently available resources. Study participants will propose questions for further analysis and specify which data will need to be collected in order to advance discussions about civil legal aid and pro se litigation, and to inform debates about future policy shifts. The group might also propose methods for future data collection and identify one or two communities that may be suitable subjects of new data-collection pilot programs.
Dædalus
An issue of Dædalus on “Access to Justice,” to be published in Spring 2019, will be organized around three topics: Delivery, Interests, and the Meaning of Access to Justice. The volume will explore the importance of civil legal aid and representation to the American justice system and the rule of law. Drawing from multiple disciplines within legal scholarship, the collection will shed light on what access to justice really means, enumerate the multiple parties and interests with a stake in equal access to civil justice, and educate the broader public about current efforts to deliver quality civil legal representation.
Designing Legal Services for the 21st Century
This phase of the project will provide a national overview of the challenges in legal services by focusing on three of the most common categories of civil legal problems: family, housing, and health care. By addressing these issues in detail, as case studies within the larger context of legal services, the project will identify practical recommendations to address challenges specific to particular court systems as well solutions to problems that are common across the civil legal spectrum.
The project’s final report will provide actionable steps that could be pursued by the variety of communities reflected in the Academy’s membership, including business, the professions, the media, and academia. The report will help to devise benchmarks of progress that will indicate whether outcomes for individuals are improving – perhaps focusing on data like the number of low-income Americans who are receiving the advice and assistance they need, the number who seek assistance, and the number of would-be litigants who resolve their issues without initiating legal proceedings.
Project Chairs for Data Collection and Legal Services for Low-Income Americans
Mark Hansen
University of Chicago
Rebecca Sandefur
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Planning Committee for Designing Legal Services for the 21st Century
David F. Levi
American Law Institute
John G. Levi
Legal Services Corporation; Sidley Austin LLP
Lance Liebman
Columbia Law School
Martha Minow
Harvard University
Rebecca Sandefur
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
James Sandman
Legal Services Corporation
Diane P. Wood
U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit
Funder
David M. Rubenstein Enhancement Fund
Project Meetings \\ Making Justice Accessible
Legal Services Planning Committee Meeting
February 8, 2018
American Academy
Cambridge, MA
The planning committee met to discuss the current state of the Academy’s projects in legal services and to begin ideating on further work. The discussions from this meeting formed the basis of the Academy’s work on Designing Legal Services for the 21st Century.
Participants
Jonathan F. Fanton
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
David F. Levi
Duke Law School; American Law Institute
John G. Levi
Legal Services Corporation; Sidley Austin LLP
Lance Liebman
Columbia Law School
Martha Minow
Harvard Law School
Rebecca Sandefur
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
James Sandman
Legal Services Corporation
John Tessitore
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Diane P. Wood
U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit
Making Justice Accessible: Data Collection and Legal Services for Low-Income Americans
June 26–27, 2018
American Academy
Cambridge, MA
The project committee met to discuss the first phase of the Legal Services data project, which includes the state of currently available data on unrepresented civil litigants, patterns and problems in the collection of that data, and what the data tell researchers today.
Workshop Chairs
Rebecca Sandefur
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Mark Hansen
University of Chicago
Participants
Catherine Albiston
University of California, Berkeley School of Law
Katherine Alteneder
Self-Represented Litigation Network
Tonya Brito
University of Wisconsin Law School
Anna Carpenter
Lobeck-Taylor Community Advocacy Clinic, University of Tulsa College of Law
Elizabeth Chambliss
NMRS Center on Professionalism, University of South Carolina School of Law
April Faith-Slaker
A2J Lab, Harvard Law School
Margaret Hagan
Stanford Legal Design Lab
Bonnie Rose Hough
Center for Families, Children & the Courts, Judicial Council of California
Natalie Knowlton
Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System, University of Denver
James Lynch
Maryland Data Analysis Center, University of Maryland
Carlos Manjarrez
Office of Data Governance and Analysis, Legal Services Corporation
Shelley Spacek Miller
Research Division, National Center for State Courts
Erika Rickard
A2J Lab, Harvard Law School
Tanina Rostain
Center for the Study of the Legal Profession, Georgetown University Law Center
Betty Balli Torres
Texas Access to Justice Foundation
David Udell
National Center for Access to Justice