DEMOS

Demos, a Network for Ideas and Action, was founded in 1999 as a national research and advocacy organization to help create a new long-term vision for American society. We intend to work, creatively and collaboratively, to bring new ideas on critical issues into the public arena and build networks for action. Two of our nation's most urgent current challenges are strengthening our democracy and sharing economic opportunity more broadly.

Demos works to forge new and stronger ties among pro-democracy reformers. During 2000 and 2001, we have brought advocates and activists together with leading scholars and policy experts on several occasions to strategize on how to advance electoral reforms. We are also building bridges between national, regional, and state groups and lending concrete support to promising state initiatives for policy changes. Such support and linkages - including coalitions that span race and issue divides - are key to creating a pro-democracy movement in the United States. Our biweekly electronic newsletter, Democracy Dispatches, keeps reformers and activists apprised of key developments.

Demos conducts original research on the health of American democracy and looks at how democracy is being reshaped by major 21st century trends. This work includes a valuable Demos database that analyzes indicators of democracy in all 50 states. The database will allow for comparisons among states and can be used by policymakers and advocates to set "benchmarks" for reform. We are currently producing research reports on Election Day registration and the issue of election fraud. Our longer-term thinking includes Democracy's New Challenge, a recently released study of how globalization affects the authority of state and local governments, in particular by granting new influence over domestic U.S. policy decisions to international institutions largely removed from accountability. Future work will examine how technological advances and deep demographic shifts are reshaping American democracy.