Democracy Journal Mission Page

Mission News & Events Masthead

The mission of Democracy is to build a vibrant and vital progressivism for the twenty-first century that builds on the movement’s proud history, is true to its central values, and is relevant to present times.

Democracy will publish on a quarterly basis and serve as a place where ideas can be developed and important debates can be spurred.

We do not seek to publish policy papers; we’ll leave the important details on budget line items and dollar figures to others. Rather, we seek breakthrough thinking on the concepts and approaches that respond to the central transformations of our time: the breakdown of the ladder of upward mobility; the promise and problems of an information-based, globalized economy; new national security threats which cross old boundaries and defy old assumptions from jihadist terrorism and nuclear proliferation to climate change, pandemics, and poverty; and a society where people work and live in new and different ways.

Progressives have been at their best when we are both rigorous in looking at the world as it is and vigorous in introducing creative approaches to remake the world as we believe it should be. Democracy is not interested in either reiterating the conventional wisdom or maintaining unity around outdated orthodoxies. We see our role as upsetting tired assumptions, moving past outdated and obsolete divisions, and stretching the envelope of what is accepted by and of progressives.

Our ambitions are large – as is the scale of the work before us – but we have no doubt that ideas can change the course of our nation. Now is the time to fashion a new progressivism for the twenty-first century, and we welcome all who are willing to join in this conversation.

Read the Editors' introductory letter from Issue 1

Sign up for our mailing list

First Principles: The Role of Government

Michael Tomasky: Progressives aren’t going to give up on government because of one election. A strong role for the federal government as incubator, nurturer, and watchdog is central to the progressive vision of society.

Enemies of State

Rick Perlstein: Historically, nothing has terrified conservatives so much as efficient, effective, activist government.

Why Conservatives Won't Govern

Alan Wolfe: Rather than using government badly out of a conviction that it always fails, they now refuse to allow government to do its work at all.

The "More What, Less How" Government

Eric Liu and Nick Hanauer: What is government for? Over the last two years, this has been the dominant question of American politics. Yet so few leaders have offered coherent answers.

America 2021: Jobs & the Economy

The Jobs & Economy Roundtable: In 2021, we will still bear scars from the Great Recession. But will America be a mighty economy again? What key investments are needed to ensure our growth and prosperity? Five experts take the long view.

The 10 Percent Solution

Andrea Louise Campbell: How progressives can stop worrying and love a value-added tax.

The Science Wars Redux

Michael Bérubé: Fifteen years after the Sokal Hoax, attacks on “objective knowledge” that were once the province of the left have been taken up by the right.

Amend and Improve, 2016

David Kendall: The key to improving health-care reform lies outside Washington. A response to Jacob S. Hacker.

The Philosopher President

Alan Brinkley: Two years into Barack Obama’s presidency, we can’t doubt his intelligence, but we can wonder whether there are more important qualities.

God and Country

Mary Jo Bane: Despite increasing religious polarization, there is surprisingly little religious hostility in America. So why doesn’t it feel that way?

Utopia Lost

Yehudah Mirsky: Human rights as utopian politics may have failed us, but human rights as catastrophe prevention is the least we must insist on.

Apocalypse Then, and Now

Jennifer Klein: Two historians trace our economic mess and growing inequality to that dismal decade—the 1970s.

After Hegemony

Nina Hachigian: America is no longer the world’s only pivotal power. Americans are adjusting—but can their leaders?

Moral Witness Through Comedy

Michael Tomasky: Imagining the hastening of the day when Arab Americans are just another unsuspected and unsurprising part of American culture.

Sawhill, Anrig Continue Debate at Brookings Event

News: On November 17, the Brookings Institution hosted a panel discussion featuring Brookings’s Budgeting and National Priorities Director Isabel Sawhill and Century Foundation Vice President for Policy Greg Anrig, reprising their debate on the deficit and entitlement reform published in our Fall Issue.

Warren to Head Consumer Financial Watchdog

News: President Obama appointed Elizabeth Warren to establish the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau—an agency that Warren first proposed in the Summer 2007 issue of Democracy.

Health-Care Reform, 2015

Jacob S. Hacker: What the next health-care fight will look like—and why it might be even harder than the last one.

Attention: Deficit

Isabel Sawhill and Greg Anrig: Should progressives embrace entitlement reform? Or look elsewhere to narrow the gap? An exchange between two leading fiscal experts.

A More Perfect Union

Henry Farrell: Over the years, European leaders forgot how to justify integration to their citizens. It’s time they remember—and proceed with tough reforms.

Advise and Dissent

David Dayen: History shows that dissent within the progressive ranks has been vital to advancing the liberal agenda. A response to Michael Tomasky.

Why We Must Judge

Roger Berkowitz: It’s not all relative: Without judgment, a society loses its sense of justice.