Areas for Intervention

The sub-pages on this tab will each become a mini white-paper on a specific area, written by a political scientist or other expert, with links to relevant academic work. A theme on most pages will be that these problems are extremely complex, and that reform efforts have often failed or backfired in the past.

Our tentative list of areas to cover is:

1) Elections: The ways that states revise their electoral districts, hold party primaries, and hold general elections may have profound implications for civility within each state legislature, and for the civility of the people elected to the U.S. Congress. On this page you'll find an analysis of the many reforms that have been proposed or implemented. We'll also cover the role of money in elections

2) The Media: The press has played a role in partisan debates -- often an unsavory role -- since the founding of the republic. On this page you'll find an analysis of how changes in the nature of political media -- from newspapers to television to the internet -- has influenced the civility of political dialog. [might cover: rise of cable news, especially Fox; televised presidential debates; social networking sites; rise of misinformation campaigns; political economy of media industry...]

3) Congressional reform. The Senate (and to a lesser extent, the House of Representatives) is broken. Here you'll find a variety of proposed reforms to bylaws and party rules, and our verdict on which ones are likely to work.

4) The legal system. If there is anywhere in government were we might expect civility to be modeled, it is in the courts.  But courts' capacity to serve as models is undermined by a growing tendency for lawyers and judges to divide self-consciously into ideological camps and a tendency for critics of judges' decisions - whether interest groups, politicians, or even other judges - to impugn their targets' motives and professional ethics rather than simply challenge their reasoning.

5) Cultural changes in the United States. Some sociologists have argued that many changes in public life are the result of demographic changes, such as the gradual disappearance of the "greatest generation" and its replacement by the "baby boom" generation. (e.g., Robert Putnam).  On this page you'll find....

6) Race relations. On this page we'll discuss... 

7) Negotiation On this page you'll find analysis of trends in other nations, to help us understand whether the rise in incivility is unique to America. 

Other [please suggest other topics, in the comments below]

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News and Links

A non-fighting faith, by Jonathan Chait, New Republic (argues against political civility)

Rising Rancor: One Nation, Divisible By Politics, at LiveScience.com, 11.1.10

--This page is maintained by Jonathan Haidt