23 Jun 2006 - 28 Nov 2021
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 Democracy is not interested in either reiterating the conventional wisdom or maintaining unity around outdated orthodoxies. We see our role as upsetting tired assumptions, moving past outdated and obsolete divisions, and stretching the envelope of what is accepted by and of progressives.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.
Democracy: A Journal of Ideas: A sampling of our best pieces on Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda, and 9/11 and its consequences.
NPR: On Friday, April 15, NPR host Robert Siegel interviewed David Kendall on the idea of a tax receipt on the show All Things Considered. Kendall and co-author Ethan Porter, contributing editor at Democracy, outlined their idea in our Spring 2011 Issue [
“Seeing Where The Money Went,” Issue #20].
Democracy: A Journal of Ideas: On March 9, NDN hosted a panel discussion featuring Eric Liu and Nick Hanauer, making their case for a new theory of progressive government, as first published in our Winter 2011 Issue [
“The “More What, Less How” Government,” Issue #19].
Washington Post: In the Spring Issue of
Democracy, out in newsstands this week, Ethan Porter, contributing editor at
Democracy, and David Kendall of Third Way have an
essay promoting the idea of a taxpayer receipt. In the March 13 edition of
The Washington Post, Porter and Kendall preview the idea in an
op-ed.