From the Tea Party to Occupy Wall Street, and from cryptocurrency advocates to
the #MeToo movement, Americans and citizens of democracies worldwide are losing
confidence in what we once called the system.
This loss of faith has spread beyond government to infect a broad swath of
institutions--the press, corporations, digital platforms--none of which seem
capable of holding us together. The dominant theme of contemporary civic life is
mistrust in institutions--governments, big business, the health care system, the
press.
How should we encourage participation in public life when neither elections nor
protests feel like paths to change? Drawing on work by political scientists,
legal theorists, and activists in the streets,