Summer Reading: Eight Recent Books on Social, Economic, and Political Empowerment
These books offer perspectives on how we can enable a broader range of people to participate in our systems and institutions.
Civic Engagement - Most Popular
Social innovations that enrich society and enhance democratic participation (more)
Review
The People’s Budget
Participatory budgeting, which enables citizens to decide how to spend public funds, is building a more empowering model of democracy.
Civic Engagement
Increasing Voter Turnout: What, If Anything, Can Be Done?
Lessons from the voter turnout series, a collaboration between the Hewlett Foundation and SSIR.
Civic Engagement
Boost Turnout in Primaries By Targeting ‘November-Only Voters’
A recent get-out-the-vote experiment shows that turnout in primaries can be cost-effectively enlarged and broadened by targeting voters who only vote in general elections and who are often ignored by campaigns.
Encouraging Millennials to Vote for the Issues That Unite Them
Building on a quarter century of get-out-the-vote efforts, MTV’s 2016 “Elect This” campaign will encourage young people to vote in support of the polices that inspire them, rather than the political system that doesn’t.
Civic Engagement
The Importance of Increasing Turnout in Congressional Primaries
Higher voter turnout in those primaries would help prevent polarization and encourage a well-functioning legislature.
Excerpt
Democratic by Design: How Carsharing, Co-ops, and Community Land Trusts Are Reinventing America
In Democratic by Design, Gabriel Metcalf looks at how small-scale, self-organized projects that work outside the traditional structures of government and business can scale up to effect widespread social change.
Civic Engagement
Do We Actually Want Higher Youth Voter Turnout?
Young people can be more engaged in politics, but major institutions must actually want that to happen.
Social Issues
Increase Turnout by Informing Voters about Policy Differences
More people would vote (and a more diverse group of people would vote) if they knew more about candidates’ fundamental policy positions.
Social Issues
Getting Out the Vote Is Tougher Than You Think
Recent randomized field trials provide evidence that most get out the vote mobilization efforts have very modest effects on voter turnout, much less than previously thought.