Credit: Jon Krause for the Chronicle

For the launch of The Commons, the Chronicle invited guest essayists to debate how to strengthen civic engagement, build community, and bolster democracy. The essays below are from donors supporting such efforts; read also the pieces by leading advocates as well as by critics.

A Partisan Warrior's Reckoning

How efforts under the banner of ‘democracy’ can further its decline.

BY RACHEL PRITZKER

In their must-read book How Democracies Die, Harvard scholars Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt argue that broad-based coalitions have a unique role in preserving liberal democracy. “Coalitions of the likeminded are important,” they write, “but they are not enough to defend democracy. The most effective coalitions are those that bring together groups with dissimilar — even opposing — views on many issues. They are built not among friends but among adversaries.”

Twenty years ago, in the mid-2000s, I was a partisan warrior, and my philanthropy was entirely dedicated to pursuing my ideological beliefs. At the time, I served as a founding board member of the Democracy Alliance, a network of philanthropists focused on advancing a progressive policy agenda.

But at a certain point, I came to see that my efforts, under the banner of “democracy,” were actually furthering the decline of democracy. Our passionate advocacy, while aimed at strengthening the country, was contributing to mounting gridlock and toxic partisanship.

How the Fight Against Inequality Will Save Democracy

Polarization is not the cause of our alienation but rather the effect.

BY DARREN WALKER

I have long maintained that hope is the very oxygen of democracy. Yet today, inequality threatens to suffocate that hope.

Despite a reckoning with anti-Black racism in 2020, hate crimes in the United States have increased year after year. Despite attempts to overhaul a broken health care system, Zip Code is still more determinative of health than genetic code. Despite a global pandemic that underscored just how essential so many workers are, labor protections are under attack as income inequality continues to rise. Despite promises from both parties to lower costs and improve daily life, one in six Americans struggles with food insecurity. In a nation where disparities are this stark, it’s no surprise that so many feel that the odds are stacked against them.

Inequality segregates our society, splitting our communities and country along racial and economic lines and reducing the odds that we’ll interact with those who don’t share our experience. And thanks to a profit-driven media ecosystem where outrage garners eyeballs, we are increasingly confined to digital echo chambers that inflame our passions but dull our empathy. As a result, polarization rages through our screens and into our streets.

Read the essay series about closing divides at The Chronicle of Philanthropy.