Exploring critical issues facing our democracy and searching for solutions.
Through stories, listening experiences, opinion pieces and news, WBEZ and the Chicago Sun-Times will take a solutions-oriented approach to reporting on the critical issues facing American democracy today.
The yearlong special project – in partnership with the University of Chicago’s Center for Effective Government, with funding support from the Pulitzer Center – examines the current threats to our democracy, including barriers to voting, cynicism, misinformation, polarization and much more.
The yearlong special project – in partnership with the University of Chicago’s Center for Effective Government, with funding support from the Pulitzer Center – examines the current threats to our democracy, including barriers to voting, cynicism, misinformation, polarization and much more.
Latest
Going Abroad To Find Solutions
Reporters traveled to Colombia and Canada to understand how countries outside of the United States are managing an influx of migrants and resettling refugees. What lessons can Chicago learn? We also traveled to Australia to learn more about mandatory voting and ask the question, “Would it work here?”
This special report is possible through funding from the Pulitzer Center. Our goal is to help our community of listeners and readers engage with the democratic functions in their lives and cast an informed ballot in the November 2024 election.
We want to hear from you. Tell us what you think is wrong with our democracy and share how you think we can fix it.
Good for those five secretaries of state who sent Musk a letter asking him to fix his AI model that produced wrong information about state ballot deadlines. In an high-interest election season, social media platforms must protect against misinformation.
Judging by letters to the editor we’ve received, many Chicago-area folks are alarmed at Donald Trump’s remarks to supporters that, ‘In four years, you don’t have to vote again, we’ll have it fixed so good you’re not going to have to vote.’
In 2017, then-President Donald Trump almost let a key nuclear safety agency go leaderless. His “Schedule F,” which would replace career government workers with political appointees, aligns with Project 2025 and should alarm all Americans.
It’s not a priority in this year’s presidential election, but having government that works smarter and faster to solve problems is important to a stable, high-functioning democracy, a former Obama White House official writes.
Judge Aileen Cannon’s decision, two days after the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, ignores more than two decades during which the special counsel law has been upheld by other judges and used by both Democratic and Republican administrations.
Misinformation and disinformation are spreading like wildfire. The best way to combat the lies is with information literacy that helps us ferret out the truth — and keep democracy safe from the threat of malicious lies
The ruling delays the election interference case against Donald Trump. But the biggest casualty with the court’s latest ruling is to our democracy.
The court overturned another decades-old precedent, the Chevron deference. Opponents of all kinds of regulations meant to protect ordinary Americans will now be able to tie up proposed rules in court for years.
Tres refugiados de Kenia, Nigeria y Uganda comparten sus historias sobre la huida de sus países en busca de seguridad en Canadá.
People who read don’t censor books, writes Natalie Moore, who talked with the former head of the American Library Association about the current wave of book bans across the country.
If they truly want to clear up any “misunderstandings,” Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. should meet with lawmakers about the Alito flag controversy and court ethics in general.
How 'transformational advocacy' helped 3 Chicago-area residents find purpose, not fractured politics
Whether they’re lobbying Congress on climate change or fighting poverty, they learned how to use their voices for positive change, the author of “Reclaiming Our Democracy” writes.
It could not be clearer the Supreme Court needs genuine ethics rules, not the hazy, unenforceable guidelines it approved last year. U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin has said he is thinking about holding hearings on the matter since the Alito flag controversy. The Senate has a civic duty to do so.