Invigorating and Expanding Civic Power to Strengthen Democracy

Illustration by Helena Pallarés

For the better part of the last decade, democracies around the world have been confronted by increased conservative populism, authoritarian impulses, and growing disillusionment with political establishments. New threats to democracy include shifting societal divides, as political polarization no longer falls only along traditional left-right lines. In some cases, divisions pit established elites against marginalized communities and working families. Groups that perceive and experience exclusion, spanning ideological and social divides, are frustrated with democracies that limit their power and participation. Societal structures often encourage the relinquishing of individual power in favor of hierarchical or deferential arrangements, fostering a dependency rather than partnership for governance and a disengagement from the democratic process. Democratic systems that do not include or deliver to the needs of those traditionally excluded from power risk their legitimacy and create space for anti-democratic threats to grow.

In the face of these challenges, the impulse of those who believe in democratic values and practices is to defend democracy. Yet perhaps true believers in democracy must also take steps to rethink and even reimagine democratic practice and participation with a particular focus on democracies that are more inclusive, more people-centered, and more responsive to the needs and aspirations of all. A responsive government should cater to the populace’s needs, yet the prevalent top-down approach, assuming superior insight from those in power, seems patronizing. Thus, there’s a clear need for a more inclusive decision-making process.

As civic engagement leaders from Brazil, South Africa, and the United States, in this essay, we share our collective insights from our transnational learning, while drawing on examples from our individual initiatives. We propose three strategies for new conversations and actions toward building better democracies: (1) setting the political agenda through people’s power, (2) rebuilding democracy through local institutions, and (3) democratizing power to affect change. The future of democracy demands new approaches to politics, governance, and activism that are best ideated by those in society who commit to more and better democracy, not less.

Strategy #1: Setting the Political Agenda Through People’s Power

Empowering individuals to actively participate in governance requires equitable access to agenda-setting mechanisms. Traditional methods, such as town halls and participatory budgeting, offer one pathway. Leveraging digital platforms, particularly social media, presents a promising and complementary avenue for amplifying public voices and increasing citizen influence beyond the traditional agenda-setting function
of mass media. Platforms like YouTube have shown potential in reshaping agenda-setting dynamics, providing space for minority viewpoints, and countering mainstream narratives.

In the United States, the nonprofit media organization PushBlack exemplifies the potential of community-focused media to amplify marginalized voices and drive meaningful action. The organization listens to the needs of the Black community, builds trust by producing culturally resonant content, and mobilizes people to take action. Early on, PushBlack surveyed its subscribers and identified criminal justice reform as a key issue of importance to their community. PushBlack integrated current event stories around the history and present state of criminal justice to provide context for their community, leveraging this trust to drive action.

In 2018, PushBlack advocated for Amendment 4, which restores voting rights to Floridians with past convictions. Collaborating with the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition and Stay Woke, they helped 1,000 subscribers mail in petitions to get Amendment 4 on the ballot. Partnering with Second Chances Florida, PushBlack’s subscribers made 600 calls and sent 15,000 texts, informing citizens about the amendment, which passed in 2018.

In Tennessee, PushBlack educated its subscribers via messaging app about sex trafficking victim Cyntoia Brown, prompting 200 subscribers to call Governor Bill Haslam and urge him to grant clemency, which he did in 2019. From 2018 to the present, PushBlack has leveraged its position as a trusted messenger to mobilize Black Americans to vote. PushBlack has built an audience of over 7 million subscribers across digital media platforms. The organization applied the tried and true strategy of relational organizing to the digital space, prompting their audience to share over 1 billion “get out the vote” messages with their friends and family across messaging apps and social media, resulting in 3 million votes in national elections that otherwise wouldn’t have been cast, according to third-party analysis in partnership with the Analyst Institute and Accelerate Change.

All of these outcomes are due to PushBlack’s ability to listen deeply to its community, engage them with relevant content, build trust, and mobilize action on important issues.

These efforts are particularly important following former US President Donald Trump’s popular “drain the swamp” message in 2016, a perverse call for democracy to return more power to the people while attempting to divide “the people” along ethno-nationalist and racial lines. By partnering with communities to set the agenda, nonprofit media outlets can become megaphones for citizens independent from government actors and serve as conduits for participatory governance.

However, significant challenges persist in efforts to empower individuals to actively participate in governance. A key issue is the disparity in civic engagement opportunities where wealthier and more educated individuals are disproportionately likely to self-select into democratic participation. Meanwhile, the influence of corporate media continues to shape public opinion in ways that often serve the interests of political and corporate elites, thereby marginalizing less privileged voices. To address these challenges, civic technology solutions
must prioritize accessibility and transparency, with the goal of closing the divide between citizens and policymakers and reducing disparities in access.

One promising approach to enhancing accessibility and transparency is through strategic investments in digital media. When coupled with targeted civic tech solutions, such investments can significantly broaden the reach and impact of civic engagement initiatives. For example, PushBlack has developed a tool that allows users to check their voter registration status, register to vote, and make a voting plan with friends and family directly through their digital media platforms. By initially engaging individuals through digital media, PushBlack has effectively leveraged technology to increase civic engagement.

Strategy #2: Rebuilding Democracy Through Local Institutions

To ward off authoritarianism, it is vital not only to protect democracy in times of electoral crisis but to find ways to broaden it, especially beyond national elections. After the defeat of Jair Bolsonaro’s far-right presidency (2018-2022), local institutions in Brazil play an even more crucial role in this mission by reinforcing the idea that people must stay politically active in their everyday lives and local communities. NOSSAS, an activist non-governmental organization, believes that fostering civic engagement and accountability at the community level by empowering individuals and enhancing the spirit of civic participation can help to facilitate reconciliation, restore trust in democratic institutions, and ensure that marginalized groups are heard and considered in the new political landscape.

A notable example of this mission is NOSSAS’ “A Eleição do Ano” campaign, which aimed to enhance democratic engagement in Child Protection Councils (Conselhos Tutelares), legally mandated structures present in all Brazilian municipalities that uphold and enforce the rights and wellbeing of children and adolescents. Over the past decade, these councils have faced the challenge of low voter turnout, leading to the election of little-known counselors chosen primarily for their connections with local politicians, rather than their commitment to children’s and adolescents’ rights within these communities. Even more concerning, there has been a growing presence of fundamentalist, denialist, and far-right groups in these spaces.

Understanding that scenario, NOSSAS launched an online platform to tackle both of these challenges by encouraging active engagement of local leaderships in these elections and also by connecting candidates who were committed to Child and Adolescent Statute (Estatuto da Criança e do Adolescente – ECA), a legislation enacted in 1990 to safeguard and promote the rights of children and adolescents in Brazil, with voters. Through an interactive website, where candidates could submit a summarised profile and their political platform while publicly committing themselves to defend the ECA, NOSSAS successfully enhanced a network of institutions and organizations to mobilize a significant number of new candidates and increase voter turnout, which reached a historic high in 2023.

In total, the website helped more than 82,000 people find candidates aligned with the ECA to vote for the Conselhos Tutelares in their municipalities. Data from the Ministry of Human Rights, released after the elections, indicated that more than 332,000 voters participated across Brazil, a 25 percent increase compared to the previous election. This campaign not only highlighted the importance of local institutions in defending children’s rights but also demonstrated their crucial role in promoting a more inclusive and resilient democratic society where political participation is constantly stimulated. Through creative strategies and collaborative work, it is possible to strengthen local institutions and grassroots engagement, helping to safeguard and broaden democracy and preventing future authoritarian backslides.

Strategy #3: Democratizing Power to Affect Change

Politics is about the power to act. Mobilizing people’s power should not be limited to voter participation or protest. Politics is also not the sole domain of political parties or career activists. Mobilizing people’s power needs to be a basic and pervasive part of participation and political life in a democracy.

In 2022, Rivonia Circle, a political think tank dedicated to ideating new political thought and practice in South Africa, launched the Democracy Builder, a one-day workshop that mobilizes communities of South Africans from all backgrounds and orientations to participate in democracy through building solutions to local problems. Contrary to the institutional arrangements that concentrate power in the hands of governments and politicians, the Democracy Builder emphasises that all people have power to identify problems and can act to change them.

The Democracy Builder mobilizes people’s power in three ways. First, the workshop provides people in communities a forum to discuss, debate and honestly reflect on their understanding and experiences of democracy. Resource-scarce communities rarely have the time or opportunity to critically reflect on democracy as a concept or lived experience. Most people live through the challenges and contradictions of democracy alone, attributing the success and failures of their lives as isolated, individualised and helplessly. Creating space for people to share their experiences, thoughts, and challenges collectively helps people clarify their understanding of democracy, sharpen the contradictions, and build solidarity with other people by recognising that there are more shared struggles than individual ones.

The second source of insight from the Democracy Builder is in its invitation to communities to reimagine democracy. Using the call to design an upgraded version of the country, “South Africa 2.0,” workshop participants collectively construct visions for the future of democracy through the lens of practical issues they are concerned with. This activity demonstrates how imagination can be a catalyst for democratic change and how hope and aspiration can be as powerful as discontent and anger in mobilizing people to build power to act. People envision societies where young people lead, where local government structures are replaced with community-centered projects, where education builds civic power and communities access productive land. Uninhibited by real constraints of institutions as we know them, imagination can be a tool for real democratic change. If politics is the art of the possible, creativity must be prioritized in our efforts to make new forms of democratic participation possible.

The final aspect of building democracy through the workshop is an immediate and collective call to action. The Democracy Builder asks all participants to design and execute a six-week project, with a minimal budget equivalent to $200, to solve local issues in their communities. This effort breaks the mental block that solving problems and governance is the domain of others and makes democratic participation a practical possibility for people who have limited power and resources.

Conclusion

People want democracy to have practical outputs and real outcomes. They want democracy to be generative and power to be devolved. People-driven initiatives are not separate from government and partisan politics and require engagement with political office holders, government processes, and business interests. They are an effort not to create projects parallel to institutions but to build ways that integrate people’s power and efforts into formal governance.

Empowering the people to govern requires a multifaceted approach, encompassing equitable access to agenda-setting mechanisms, leveraging digital platforms for inclusive discourse, and strengthening the role of nonprofit media as civic tech. By fostering transparent and accessible channels for public engagement, we can nurture a more responsive and inclusive democracy where the people can govern and where all people, including those who have been historically marginalized or excluded from political spaces, can engage and participate in politics and democracy. The power of active citizens needs to be given the same attention and legitimacy as the power of politicians and the state. Politics outside of government and politicians is not only possible but is already happening with many communities stepping up to close the gaps in governance that is left by the failures of the state. With the right tools, imagination, and access to power, people can—and wish to—play a much more active role in governing themselves and their communities.

Read more stories by Áurea Carolina, Tessa Dooms & Julian Walker.