What does a community that's "doing democracy well" actually look like?
On an all new episode of the Democracy Lab, Rebecca Trout, Senior Director of Programs & Partnerships at the National Civic League, discusses with us why local democracy might be the most overlooked lever for rebuilding trust in institutions.
The NCL has been reinventing local governance since 1894. Rebecca walks through how civic infrastructure (not just elections) builds the trust and “civic muscle” people need to weather crises, how NCL’s Healthy Democracy Ecosystem Map charts 12,000+ organizations working on democracy across 14 categories, and how reimagined congressional town halls use sortition to get a representative room instead of just the loudest voices.
Her core argument is that telling people to “defend democracy” rings hollow if they’ve never had a good experience of it. Building that positive groundwork is what the NCL is accomplishing.
Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts now: