Politics
‘Democracy Is a Verb’: How Local Groups Are Working to Increase Civic Engagement as Participation Declines
As the country prepares to mark the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, WTTW is documenting how individuals and local organizations are responding to challenges and opportunities around democracy with its Firsthand: Democracy initiative.
The anniversary comes as Americans’ cynicism toward democracy, institutions and politicians is at a high point, according to a 2024 survey from the National Opinion Research Center.
Researchers found that only around a quarter of Americans believe the country’s best days are ahead, and only one in 10 Americans say the government represents them well. This increased civic cynicism applied across party lines, race, gender and age.
To kick off Firsthand: Democracy WTTW News held a special installment of “Chicago Tonight” with a panel of researchers and advocates studying democracy and activists looking to restore public trust.
Jennifer Benz
Jennifer Benz is the senior vice president of public affairs and media research at National Opinion Research Center. Her research examines public attitudes toward government, news media and institutions. Benz was a project lead on NORC’s civic cynicism survey.
“We really wanted to get at this underlying sense of where the American mood is related to long-standing, more systemic issues around civic engagement and the democracy,” Benz said.
Benz and her fellow researchers identified five groups they say typify the U.S. —The Ambivalent, The Believers, The Disillusioned, the Mostly MAGA and the Classically Liberal.
By using these groups, rather than categorizing by partisanship, race, gender and age, researchers can examine underlying attitudes that withstand identity politics and reactions to news events, Benz said.
“If you only focus on those factors, you sort of miss out on a lot of the nuance in the public where there are commonalities that cut across those groups,” Benz said.
Both the Mostly MAGA and Classically Liberal groups say the country requires substantial change — 65% and 69% respectively.
The Believers, the smallest of the five groups making up about 13% of the population, is the only group with a majority who says the country’s best days are still ahead.
Benz says that the country has been through similar periods of distrust and pessimism toward the government, pointing toward the aftermath of the Watergate scandal.
A move back toward high public trust could be tied to slowly increasing economic conditions or a national challenge that brings the country together.
“It’s hard to know what brings people back from these turning points,” Benz said. “It’s sort of a slow recovery from an entrenchment, often tied to economic conditions or there’s some sort of turning point event or situation that changes things.”
Alexandra Filindra
Alexandra Filindra, a political psychologist and scientist at the University of Illinois Chicago, conducts some survey research, but also uses experimental designs to examine how certain groups would respond to political scenarios.
In a recent experiment, Filindra tested whether participants would support undemocratic punishments, such as “canceling” someone or even arresting them, against people they saw as threatening their beliefs.
She presented participants with a hypothetical scenario in which a monument tied to their beliefs was removed and found that participants were more likely to endorse undemocratic penalties against those responsible for taking it down.
“They’re basically interpreting this as, ‘You’re not a real American when you’re saying this, or when you’re making this decision, or when you’re presenting this idea, and therefore, if you’re not a true American, then I am entitled to strip you of the protections of democracy,’” Filindra said.
Filindra said this specific period of distrust and polarization could be unique and more long-lasting than those which came before.
“We have to think of polarization happening in conjunction with other things that can facilitate greater breakdown,” Filindra said. “So in the 1790s for example, there was a lot of polarization, but you didn’t have the same level of economic inequality. You didn’t have the same level of centralization of authority.”
Americans should look toward establishing non-partisan redistricting commissions, which would create more competitive congressional races, as a way to bring down the temperature, Filindra said.
“We have created a system where now the competition is not in the general election, it’s moved to the primary,” Filindra said. “The person who makes the decision, the median voter, is not the person who’s in the middle of the electorate, but the person who is in the middle of the party.”
Maryanne Colter
Maryanne Colter is Illinois state coordinator for Braver Angels, a national organization aimed at ending polarization in America.
“People who used to be friends are now fighting,” Colter said. “And that ended up being the development of the first workshop of getting half blues half reds, that’s Braver Angels terminology, together to have face to face conversations and just learn to have civil discourse again.”
Colter said listening, rather than trying to persuade, not only helps people feel seen and heard but is also a practical approach to problem-solving and policy debate.
Braver Angels holds monthly workshops where local Republicans and Democrats learn listening strategies and discuss policy disagreements, often leaving with more common ground than they initially thought possible, Colter said.
“One policy issue that we use in workshops is the role of policing, and I have yet to find a group where they can’t agree that safety of the community is a concern,” Colter said. “Now you’ve got something you can talk about that’s not necessarily like ‘my morals are better than your morals.’”
In another exercise Colter calls “walk a mile in my news,” participants from both sides temporarily exchange news sources, then come back together to discuss what they have in common.
“One of the things we discovered is to get out of the headlines and get into the details and put on your critical thinking skills really, you know, dive into the issue,” Colter says.
Colter says she’s more hopeful than most about Americans’ capacity to connect and grow toward compromise.
“That’s our job,” Colter said. “To grow that segment of the population that says, ‘I want to connect, not dominate.’”
Verneé Green
Verneé Green is the CEO of Mikva Challenge, an organization aimed at empowering and informing youth to be more active citizens.
Mikva administers school-year and summer programs that employ young people in local government offices, City Hall and community organizing roles in Chicago.
“Democracy is a verb," she said. "It means that democracy is action. Young people should be active, not passive, participants in what’s happening in our society.”
Green says around 90% of Mikva Challenge alumni who are eligible to vote do. The youth voter turnout in the 2024 presidential election was 47%.
“They care about their communities. They run for school boards. They may not necessarily run for formal office, but they vote in elections,” Green said.
In Benz’s Civic Cynicism survey, The Disillusioned group, the group most pessimistic and distrustful of government skews toward younger Americans. Green said it could be a product of young people not seeing themselves in the civic process.
“We really attribute that to young people not being able to participate in a way that makes it real,” Green said. “If you are teaching the Constitution, it’s an old document, it feels like it doesn’t mean anything to you.”
Green said she’s been inspired by the eagerness of young people to participate in civics and disputes the notion that they are not interested in politics.
Green said daily interactions between students and local leaders who directly influence youth outcomes have been an effective strategy for engaging young people.
"It’s one thing to look at what’s happening in D.C. and lose our minds,” Green said. “It’s another thing here in Chicago for our students to sit with the candidates of the elected school board here and ask them direct questions, to say, ‘If you are elected, how will you shape CPS policy?’”
