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OUR COMMON PURPOSE CHAMPIONS STATEMENT

A CALL FOR ALL AMERICANS TO WORK TO INCREASE THE RESILIENCY OF OUR REPUBLIC BY 2026, OUR NATION’S 250TH ANNIVERSARY 

Throughout the past decade, the viability of the American experiment has been repeatedly challenged. Americans today are experiencing widespread distrust of our institutions and each other, rising inequality, profound demographic shifts, a fragmented media environment, and hyper-partisan polarization. In short, we have lost our common purpose as Americans.

These challenges require a reassessment of our political institutions, the civil society groups through which we associate, and our civic culture – the values, norms, and narratives that inspire our commitment to our democracy and each other. We must move quickly to improve the resilience of our representative government, strengthen our nation’s common purpose, and restore trust in one another and our institutions. Now is the time to reinvent America's constitutional democracy for the 21st century.

Our Common Purpose: Reinventing American Democracy for the 21st Century, the 2020 report of the American Çï¿ûÊÓƵ of Arts and Sciences' Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship, proposes 31 recommendations to achieve that end. Having achieved unanimous support from its bipartisan and diverse membership, the Commission offers a model, inspired by our nation's founders, of compromise and consensus building. This approach is urgently needed, from our town halls to the halls of Congress, if we are to find a way forward together.

Not every signatory of this statement supports every Our Common Purpose reform, but all of us agree with the report’s basic aims and support at least one of its recommendations. Many of us are committed to advancing one or more of the proposals in this report by launching new initiatives, building grassroots support, or increasing collaboration to support significant progress at the local, state, or national level. We call on our fellow Americans—individual citizens, businesses, civil society groups, educators, philanthropists, and state, local and federal policymakers—to join us in taking action to renovate American democracy so that it better serves all Americans. In this moment of uncertainty and distrust, this must be our common purpose.

Some organizations and individuals are committed to serving as Champions for specific recommendations, while others are Champions for the report as a whole.

•  at Pepperdine's School of Public Policy

• in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs

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•  at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy

• at The Brookings Institution and The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard Kennedy School