People who want to improve the world often encounter problems of collective action (how to get many individuals to act in concert), of discourse (how to talk and think productively about contentious matters), and of exclusion. To get things done, they must form or join and sustain functional groups, and through them, develop skills and virtues that help them to be effective and responsible civic actors.
Peter Levine, one of America's leading scholars and practitioners of civic engagement, identifies the general challenges that confront people who ask the citizens' question and explores solutions in his most recent book, What Should We Do? A Theory of Civic Life. Democracy Works host Chris Beem also thinks through these questions in his most recent book, The Seven Democratic Virtues: What You Can Do to Overcome Tribalism and Save Democracy. In this conversation, Levine and Beem discuss how their approaches differ and how individual and collective actions can't be separated from each other when it comes to civic engagement.
Levine is the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Lincoln Filene Professor of Citizenship & Public Affairs in Tufts University's Jonathan Tisch College of Civic Life.
What Should We Do? A Theory of Civic Life
The Seven Democratic Virtues: What You Can Do to Overcome Tribalism and Save Our Democracy
Suspect citizens in a democracy [revisited]
The second annual Democracy Works listener mailbag
How to end democracy’s doom loop
The clumsy journey to antiracism
Civil rights, civil unrest
Aaron Maybin on doing the hard work of democracy [rebroadcast]
Free speech from the Founding Fathers to Twitter
Bonus: Mayors and bipartisanship during COVID-19
The people vs. the experts — and those caught in the middle
China’s role in the COVID-19 infodemic
A roadmap to a more equitable democracy
Trust, facts, and democracy in a polarized world
Bonus: Civic engagement, social distancing, and democracy reform
Give me liberty or give me COVID-19?
Bonus: COVID-19 and Democracy with The Democracy Group
Federalism in uncertain times
Will COVID-19 create a one-issue campaign?
Public health depends on the Census
Free and fair elections during a pandemic
COVID-19 exposes democracy’s tensions
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
City Manager Unfiltered
Potencial Americano
The ASIC Podcast
The Chris Plante Show
Red Eye Radio