Organizations
Buddhists & Yogins United
Buddhists & Yogins United is a campaign to increase civic engagement, drive voter participation, and fight voter suppression in the 2020 election.
Some of the resources and steps that you can take, shared by Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach are:
Go to Vote.org and register to vote, or confirm that you are already properly registered. Voter suppression is an ongoing problem and it is critical that you check your status.
Request an Absentee Ballot. COVID-19 may change the way we participate in the 2020 election. Act now to ensure that your vote will be counted.
Right now, call or text 3 family members or friends and ask them to complete steps 1 & 2. Then remind each other to vote when the time comes.
Fair Fight 2020
Fair Fight 2020 is building voter protection teams with Democratic state parties or local allies across the country to protect the right to vote—and it’s starting now. Right now, Fair Fight is targeting 20 “battleground states” in advance of the 2020 election.
In Texas, Democrats are combining Fair Fight’s efforts with a campaign to register would-be Democrats to better represent Texas’s changing demographic. Read more here.
Represent Us
We bring together conservatives, progressives, and everyone in between to pass powerful anti-corruption laws that stop political bribery, end secret money, and fix our broken elections.
World movement for democracy
"It is our belief that the time has come for democrats throughout the world to develop new forms of cooperation to promote the development of democracy."
- Founding Statement of the World Movement for Democracy
OPENSECRETS.ORG
Nonpartisan, independent and nonprofit, the Center for Responsive Politics is the nation's premier research group tracking money in U.S. politics and its effect on elections and public policy. OUR VISION is for Americans to be empowered by access to clear and unbiased information about money’s role in politics and policy and to use that knowledge to strengthen our democracy. OUR MISSION is to produce and disseminate peerless data and analysis on money in politics to inform and engage Americans, champion transparency, and expose disproportionate or undue influence on public policy.
Public Citizen
Because the government should serve voters, not corporate interests, Public Citizen pushes to curb the influence of money in politics by exposing the influence of big corporations on government, pushing to open the government to public scrutiny and holding public officials accountable for their misdeeds. We do this by engaging citizens in grassroots efforts, undertaking groundbreaking, data-driven research and championing citizen interests before Congress, the executive branch agencies and the courts.
American Promise
The goal of American Promise is to organize Americans to win the 28th Amendment to the Constitution to restore American democracy in which We the People—not big money, not corporations, not unions, not special interests—govern ourselves.
Center for courage and renewal
Our mission is to create a more just, compassionate and healthy world by nurturing personal and professional integrity and the courage to act on it.
Healing the Heart of Democracy: The courage to create a politics worthy of the human spirit
By Parker J. Palmer
In Healing the Heart of Democracy, Parker J. Palmer quickens our instinct to seek the common good and gives us the tools to do it. This timely, courageous and practical work—intensely personal as well as political—is not about them, “those people” in Washington D.C., or in our state capitals, on whom we blame our political problems. It’s about us, “We the People,” and what we can do in everyday settings like families, neighborhoods, classrooms, congregations and workplaces to resist divide-and-conquer politics and restore a government “of the people, by the people, for the people.”
In the same compelling, inspiring prose that has made him a bestselling author, Palmer explores five “habits of the heart” that can help us restore democracy’s foundations as we nurture them in ourselves and each other:
An understanding that we are all in this together
An appreciation of the value of “otherness”
An ability to hold tension in life-giving ways
A sense of personal voice and agency
A capacity to create community
Data & Reports
Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens
Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page
Gilens, M., & Page, B. (2014). Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens. Perspectives on Politics, 12(3), 564-581. doi:10.1017/S1537592714001595
The Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index
167 countries scored on a scale of 0 to 10 based on 60 indicators
Freedom in the World 2019 Map
Unpacking 13 years of Decline
Freedom in the World has recorded global declines in political rights and civil liberties for an alarming 13 consecutive years, from 2005 to 2018. The global average score has declined each year, and countries with net score declines have consistently outnumbered those with net improvements.
