General Reform

Many individuals and organizations are already hard at work on strengthening democratic institutions and practices.

Websites

Common Cause

Common Cause has been working on building a democracy that works for everyone by holding those in power accountable through lobbying, litigation, and grassroots organizing.

Reclaim the American Dream

Reclaim the American Dream is a non-partisan, non-profit informational website made up of a small team of journalists and researchers working to inform thoughtful people who wish to get engaged in fixing our democracy and making our economy fairer at the local level.

Kettering Foundation

The Kettering Foundation is a nonprofit operating foundation that seeks to discover how to make democracy work best through research conducted from the perspective of citizens.

Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship

The Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship was launched in 2018 to explore how best to respond to the weaknesses and vulnerabilities in our political and civic life and to enable more Americans to participate as effective citizens in a diverse modern-day democracy.

U.S. Democracy Program

The Hewlett Foundation’s U.S Democracy Program supports nonprofit organizations across the ideological spectrum who seek to improve the political system so that elected representatives are better equipped to solve society’s greatest problems.

Public Agenda

Public Agenda is a national, nonpartisan, nonprofit research and public engagement organization headquartered in New York City that strives to strengthen democracy and expand opportunity for all Americans.

Books

Our Common Purpose: Reinventing American Democracy for the 21st Century

Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship

Six Amendments: How and Why We Should Change the Constitution

Justice John Paul Stevens

Media

3 Ways to Fight Extremism, Bolster the Middle

Journalist Hedrick Smith offers some optimistic insight on political reforms to make American elections fairer, more transparent, and more inclusive, and to help rebuild the political middle, so desperately missing in today’s bitterly polarized politics.

The Democracy Rebellion

Journalist Hedrick Smith travels the country looking for positive stories of democratic reform and finds them in six states where grassroots activists are fighting to equal the playing field. Discussion guide found here.

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