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Sharon L. Davies

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    Threats to democracy

    A call to democracy defenders

    Sharon L. Davies
    September 15, 2022
    Sharon L. Davies, president of the Kettering Foundation

    Davies speaks about democracy at the University of Palermo in, Buenos Aires, Argentina in August.

    Kettering Foundation

    Davies is president and CEO of the Kettering Foundation.

    For the past 40-plus years, the Kettering Foundation has focused on the question: What does it take to make democracy work as it should? We believe a functioning democracy requires citizens actively engaged with one another in the work of self-governance and the shaping of our own communities. Not passive subjects of our government, but the active directors of our own affairs. Through decades of research, learning exchanges and public forums, the Kettering Foundation has seen and written about many moving examples of this citizen-led democracy.

    The best democratic leaders understand the value of an engaged community, embrace the strength of their community’s diversity and are prepared to protect the rights of all to participate in the project of democratic self-governance. Democratic societies progress toward the fullness of their potential through rights and mechanisms that enable citizen engagement, citizen deliberation and concerted citizen action.

    On this, the United Nations International Day of Democracy, which falls just two days before Constitution Day in the United States, it is important to be clear-eyed about the grave threats democracy is facing throughout the world. Those of us who are committed to defending democracy must take notice of the threats and understand their seriousness.

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