{"id":48358,"date":"2026-03-03T12:35:52","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T17:35:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newamerica.org\/?post_type=impact&#038;p=48358"},"modified":"2026-03-03T17:42:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T22:42:07","slug":"helping-americans-understand-and-make-sense-of-democratic-dysfunction","status":"publish","type":"impact","link":"https:\/\/www.newamerica.org\/impact\/helping-americans-understand-and-make-sense-of-democratic-dysfunction\/","title":{"rendered":"Helping Americans Understand a Democracy in Crisis"},"template":"","issue_tax":[],"topic_tax":[],"program_tax":[],"project_tax":[],"location":[],"class_list":["post-48358","impact","type-impact","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":{"details":{"abstract":"","featured_image":41163,"override_caption":false,"caption":""},"page_layout":[{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","_acfe_flexible_toggle":null,"component_wysiwyg":{"add_background_color":true,"content":"<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Political Reform program\u2019s <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newamerica.org\/political-reform\/year-in-review-2025\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">work in 2025<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> deepened public and expert understanding of how concentrated executive power, weakened oversight institutions, and declining pluralism threaten representative democracy. By using research, storytelling, and public engagement, New America helped frame the crisis of governance as not merely political disagreement, but structural dysfunction requiring systemic innovations. The program\u2019s analysis helped elevate informed public discourse about democratic reform\u2014surfacing how institutional designs (like winner-take-all elections) shape political power and voter representation.<\/span>","":null,"drop_cap":false,"anchor_id":""}},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_featured_content_insights","_acfe_flexible_toggle":null,"component_featured_content_insights":{"number_of_insights":"two","one_insight":null,"two_insights":[35817,27852],"":null,"anchor_id":""}}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.1 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Helping Americans Understand a Democracy in Crisis - New America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newamerica.org\/impact\/helping-americans-understand-and-make-sense-of-democratic-dysfunction\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Helping Americans Understand a Democracy in Crisis\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.newamerica.org\/impact\/helping-americans-understand-and-make-sense-of-democratic-dysfunction\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"New America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/NewAmerica\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-03T22:42:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/d1y8sb8igg2f8e.cloudfront.net\/images\/GettyImages-2200245370.2e16d0ba.fill-1400x525.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"525\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@NewAmerica\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.newamerica.org\/impact\/helping-americans-understand-and-make-sense-of-democratic-dysfunction\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.newamerica.org\/impact\/helping-americans-understand-and-make-sense-of-democratic-dysfunction\/\",\"name\":\"Helping Americans Understand a Democracy in Crisis - 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