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American Democracy Project

The American Democracy Project (ADP) is a multi-campus initiative focused on higher education’s role in preparing the next generation of informed, engaged citizens for our democracy.  The project began in 2003 as an initiative of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), in partnership with The New York Times.

The goal of the American Democracy Project is to produce graduates who are committed to being active, involved citizens in their communities.   The 229 participating colleges and universities, as members of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, have been described as “Stewards of Place.”  As today’s undergraduates complete their studies and return to their communities, universities must prepare the next generation of citizens to become tomorrow’s “Stewards of Place.” 

Since its inception, ADP has hosted five national and eleven regional meetings, a national assessment project, and hundreds of campus initiatives including voter education and registration, curriculum revision and projects, campus audits, specific days of action and reflection (MLK Day of Service, Constitution Day), speaker series, and many recognition and award programs.


Civic Engagement in Action Series

7 Revolutions
The American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), The New York Times, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a nonpartisan think tank based in Washington, DC, have joined with eight AASCU campuses to design a project to use the materials of CSIS on AASCU campuses. The goal of this initiative is to increase the number of undergraduates who are knowledgeable about global issues so that they can act wisely as thoughtful, engaged citizens. The work began in a two-day seminar at CSIS headquarters in Washington, DC with representatives of the eight AASCU pilot campuses in attendance.



Deliberative Polling®
Deliberative Polling® employs social science to see what people would think about an issue if they became more engaged and informed. A random, representative sample is first polled on some specific public interest topic. After this baseline poll, members of the sample are invited to gather at a single place for one or more days in order to discuss the issue. Carefully balanced briefing materials, developed by an advisory group, are sent to the participants and are also made publicly available.



Participatory Citizenship: American Democracy and the Jury System
How can the entire university campus, working in the courtroom, in the community, and on campus, be engaged in efforts to improve participation in andthe experience of jury service while helping college students learn about the jury system and their role as citizens in a democracy? University students will provide support services to the court system to encourage, study, celebrate, and describe jury service as an essential feature of American democracy and as a unique expression of citizenship. The core focus of the activities will be on Promotion and Outreach, Research and Design, and the Use of Technology.



Political Engagement Project
In order to strengthen undergraduate education for responsible, engaged citizenship, the Political Engagement Project describes and assesses the impact of 21 undergraduate courses and extra-curricular programs designed to foster informed political engagement, broadly defined to include community engagement with a systemic dimension and other aspects of public policy, as well as electoral politics at local, state, and national levels. Eight American Democracy Project campuses are collaborating in the work of this project. These courses and programs are located at a diverse set of institutions across the country and draw a wide range of students, including many racial/ethnic minorities and first generation college students.



Strategies for Encouraging Voting
What were the experiences of our campuses in the past national election in designing strategies to encourage greater voter education, registration, and participation? What did the research from CIRCLE and other research organizations reveal? What are the recommended approaches that can be used in future elections? These are all questions that the Electoral Voices Taskforce sought to answer in its monograph entitled, Electoral Voices: A Best Practices Guide for Engaging College Students in Elections monograph. This monograph will serve as a guide for colleges and universities that are working to increase the level of student participation in elections.



Stewardship of Public Lands
Throughout the United States, but especially in the West, the question of who will control public lands is a hotly debated topic. The public lands of the west…national parks, national forests, grazing and prairie lands… all are sites of controversy. Who owns these lands? Who has the greatest say in their use? Does the national or the state government have the primary interest? Is it local citizens or citizens of the nation as a whole whose interests must be recognized? Timber, mining, oil and gas producers, developers, farmers, ranchers, hunters, business owners, recreational users, environmentalists…all of these groups assert claims to influence and use. Yet whose interests have primacy? And in a democracy, how do the interests of all of these groups get addressed and resolved? Is the process simply one in which the winner takes all, or are there ways to find common ground, identifying processes and solutions that create more participation and greater satisfaction? Most importantly, what is the role of individual citizens in the formulation and execution of public policy? How can individual citizens have a meaningful role in these debates?



November 5th Coalition

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