The Frontiers of Democracy conference is taking shape. We have received strong proposals for concurrent sessions on many diverse topics related to democracy in the United States and around the world. Our distinguished and exciting plenary panelists will specifically discuss religious pluralism and its relationship to democracy in multiracial societies.

We are offering early bird tickets for those who register by May 1. A regular General Admission ticket purchased by then will cost $170, and current students and Tufts University community qualify for a $70 ticket. After May 1, prices will go back to their standard levels of $240 or $120. Tickets include hors d’oeuvres on July 13, breakfast and lunch on July 14, and breakfast and lunch on July 15. (If you have already purchased tickets, you will automatically receive a partial discount to the early bird rate.)

We still have space for some additional session proposals and can accept proposals until May 1. The submission form for a session requires a title and description for the conference agenda, some thoughts about your format and audience, and the contact information of confirmed collaborators.

Time and location: July 13 (5 – 7 PM) to July 15 (noon) on Tufts University’s Medford, MA campus near the Medford/Tufts Station on the Boston Green Line.

Musa al-Gharbi has written a review essay on “How to Understand the Well-Being Gap between Liberals and Conservatives.” He summarizes studies that show that conservatives are more likely than liberals/progressives to describe themselves as happy, and this relationship holds when one controls for demographics. In other words, conservatives do not report being happier because they are more advantaged; instead, a conservative who has the same social circumstances as a progressive is likelier to be happy. Al-Garbi says that this finding is consistent across countries and extends back in time.

1. Replicating the basic pattern: conservatism is associated with happiness.

I can’t independently vouch for his overview of the research, but I can confirm the main finding with data from Tufts’ 2022 Equity in America survey. We drew a representative sample of 1,831 Americans, with large subsamples of African Americans and Latinos to allow more precise estimates of racial/ethnic differences. We also collected an extraordinary number of measures about each respondent.

We asked, “Taken all together, how would you say things are these days? Would you say you are… Very happy, Pretty happy, or Not too happy.”

In a model with age, education, race and gender, more education and older age predict greater happiness. (We know from extensive research that the age curve is not linear; happiness dips in middle age. That pattern is invisible in a linear regression.) If I add marital status and a self-report of physical health, only those variables are significantly related to reported happiness. In other words, it looks as if older and better educated people are more likely to be married and in good health. Those factors then relate to happiness.

If I add ideology, it is also significant (p <.001), with more conservative people more likely to report being happy. If I also add religious attendance, it too is significant, and ideology stays signifiant. That implies that the ideology “effect” is not explained away by religiosity, but both matter. Here is that model. The last four variables are significant.

2. Could the explanation be progessives’ social awareness?

I think some progressives might say that they–and others on their side–are unhappy because they are rightly conscious of social injustices and dangers. Thus their unhappiness reflects social concern.

We can test this hypothesis to a limited extent with our survey. It includes a few relevant attitudinal questions along with many variables about life circumstances. I added the following four items to the above model:

1. How bothered have you been witnessing someone in a public place being treated unfairly because of their race?
2. How has the pandemic impacted your mental health?
3. Thinking about climate change makes me feel anxious. [Agree/disagree]
4. Someone [I] know has been unfairly stopped, searched, questioned, physically threatened or abused by the police. [Agree/disagree]

Except the climate question, each of these is related to unhappiness to a statistically significant degree. However, being liberal is still also related to being unhappy. That means that these specific concerns seem to accompany unhappiness but do not explain away the ideological “effect.” Or, to put it another way, someone who was not worried about these four specific things, but who identified as a liberal, would still be more likely than a conservative to be unhappy.

3. Could liberals display a negative bias?

A conservative might be inclined to see progressives as negatively biased rather than socially conscious. And there may be some evidence of that in our data. We also asked: “Imagine a ladder with 10 rungs (or steps). At the top of the ladder (rung #10) are the people who are the best off, those who have the most money, most education, and best jobs. At the bottom are the people who are the worst off, those who have the least money, least education, worst jobs, or no job (rung #1). What rung from 10 through 1 best represents where you think you stand on the ladder.”

I used that item as the dependent variable in place of self-reported happiness. Liberals/progressives rated themselves lower on the ladder compared to other people when I controlled for demographics. In other words, if a liberal and a conservative have the same education, race, gender, and age, the conservative will feel more fortunate. A critic might say that liberals are people who–regardless of their actual social positions–rate their own circumstances relatively poorly, and that attitude drives their ideology and makes them unhappy or else reflects their unhappiness.

4. People with depression cluster on the left.

However, there may be a different explanation. In our sample, 281 people say they have been diagnosed with depression. If I remove them from the sample and run the first of the two regressions shown above (the one with happiness as the dependent variable), ideology is no longer statistically significant. Now, only marriage, physical health, and race are related to happiness (with whites being more likely to report being happy).

We also asked how often in the past week people had felt depressed. I subtracted the 683 people who answered more than “rarely.” Running the model without those people generated a result in which only physical health was related to happiness. Ideology again ceased to be significant.

Finally, we asked people to rate their own mental health from poor to excellent. 272 said fair or poor. When I excluded that smallish group from the sample, ideology was still significant.

In a model based on the whole population, each of the mental health measures predicts unhappiness, and liberalism does as well. Those coefficients are compatible with two theories: either most conservatives are a bit happier than most liberals, regardless of depression, or else the average happiness of liberals is lower because they include some depressed people. By excluding those who report depression or a diagnosis of depression from the analysis, I find evidence that the latter is the case. In short: people with depression are reducing the mean happiness of liberals.

Indeed, people with depression cluster on the left. In the sample as a whole, 5% of respondents identify as extremely liberal, but 14% of the people who have been diagnosed with depression are extremely liberal. Conservatives represent 18.5% of the sample but just 11% of those with diagnosed depression. This pattern is consistent with previous studies.

Saying that you are depressed or reporting a diagnosis of depression depends on many factors–not only one’s mental health and access to medical care but also one’s beliefs and attitudes about psychology, which may relate to ideology. From our survey, it is not clear whether depressed people are concentrated on the left or whether people who employ the label of depression tilt that way.

However, my own informal observations and what I hear from others suggests that a substantial subset of people who gravitate to the left have significant mental health challenges, often related to trauma. I suspect that they explain most of the association between conservative ideology and happiness.

Everyone has a right to choose and express their political views. Progressives must welcome all kinds of people onto their side. However, I think that attracting people who (regardless of their social circumstances) experience depression poses a challenge for any movement.* Also, I sometimes wonder whether progressive messages fall flat because their authors are less happy than their target audiences.

*I wanted to know whether committed activists on the left were likely to be depressed, but we only have data from 31 left-oriented people who protested in the past year, which is too small a sample to tell. See also: how predictable is the rest of your life?; the aspiration curve from youth to old age; are Americans ‘innocent of ideology’?; party identification and ideology over time.

Two stories compete in the imagination of Spain and Portugal, affecting how history is portrayed in schools, on public monuments, and in policy debates about matters like immigration. The stakes are high because the former story played an important role in the invention of the concept of race and thus helped to enable imperialism and transatlantic slavery.

First story: The original Iberians were Europeans who became citizens of the Roman Empire, speaking dialects of Latin that evolved into today’s Spanish, Portuguese, and Catalan, and who converted early to Christianity. In and after 711, a foreign army conquered Spain. These invaders originated in Africa and the Middle East, their religion was Islam, and their language and culture were Arabic. Gradually, the Spanish and Portuguese drove these invaders out.

Second story: The inhabitants on both sides of the western Mediterranean were never sharply distinguished. Many on both sides became Romanized and Latin-speaking. Most converted to a religion of Middle Eastern origin, Christianity. Then, many converted to another religion from the same region, Islam. The leaders of the armies that traveled a short distance across the straits in 711 were Muslims, but their armies were of mixed faiths. A substantial proportion of people on either side of the straits assimilated to–and influenced–a broad cultural/linguistic group called the Arabs. Among those who contributed to Arab culture were Iberians of Christian or Jewish faith. Gradually, some dynasties that identified as Christian and spoke Spanish displaced those that identified as Muslim and Arab, and the former cultural influences predominated. Today’s Spaniards (as a group) have forebears who were Muslims and Arabs or Jews. Typically, people stay in place while cultures spread.

An 18th-century Carthusian monk took 30 years to make this door. It stands in an extravagantly decorated baroque chapel inside a gilt-draped Catholic monastery in Granada. The similarity to Mudejer art is unmistakable, and surely Brother Jose Manuel was practicing the art of his Arabized forebears.

The two models are reconquista (reconquest) and conviviencia (coexistence). With these two models in mind, consider the following document. In 1038, Fernando I of Castille wrote to Isma’il ibn Dhi ‘l-Nun, the king of Toledo, who had sought his support in a war against Isma’il’s kinsman. Fernando wrote:

We… demand our land, which a long time ago you conquered and which you have inhabited for as long as had been ordained [by God]. Now He has given us victory over you on account of your wickedness. Depart to your own shores and give our land up to us. For there is no good in your living with us any longer, nor will we turn away from you until God has judged between you and us.

(translated by Catlos 2018, p. 211)

This letter looks like evidence of reconquista. A leader of Christian Spain is demanding that foreign invaders go back home. Indeed, Fernando was called (although not by himself), the Emperor of Spain. His opponent was the reigning head of the Dhulnunid or Dhunnunid dynasty, which traced its origins to members of the conquering army in 711.

But, to complicate matters … both of these men spent much of their lives at war against rivals who were a mix–in both cases–of Christians and Muslims. Fernando’s better-documented son, Alfonso VI (El Bravo) was raised and educated by his father’s allies, the Banu Gómez clan. This dynasty was Christian (at least at this time), but their name is Arabic. Later, Alfonso took refuge for a while at the court of al-Mamun of Toledo, a Muslim. One of Alfonso’s wives was Zaida of Seville, who was probably the daughter-in-law of the ruler Al-Mu’tamid Muhammad, who claimed patrilineal descent from an Egyptian clan. Zaida was the mother of Alfonso’s son and heir, Sancho Alfnónsez, who was thus the descendent of both Fernando and Al-Mu’tamid. Alfonso VI lived a long and bloody life, fighting his own brother and other Christian monarchs as well as Muslim ones in various mixed alliances. When he captured Toledo from al-Mamun’s heir, he took the title al-Imbratur dhi-l-Millatayn: “Emperor of the Two Religions” and promised to maintain the city’s mosque. This is evidence of conviviencia, not reconquista.

I am not qualified to interpret Fernando’s 1038 letter, but I’d suggest reading it (and the whole history of its era) without such anachronistic ideas as racial differences or even “Europe.”

It’s at least possible that Fernando was not saying: “You and your people, go back to Africa.” Instead, he might have meant: “O leader of the Dhulnunid House, your proper feudal fiefdom is in Mauretania, where your first-known patrilineal ancestor once ruled. Go back to your own demesne, because Toledo belongs to my House, the Jimenez dynasty, also known as the Banu Sancho, and leave your vassals here for me to rule. You and I are peers and are probably kin. However, God recognizes my claim to this specific land, so be gone.”

To be sure, a Spanish identity developed that was religious, gradually racial, and defined as the opposite of an imposed “Moorish” identity. (See the first image, above.) But that happened over centuries–in part to serve political agendas–and we should be cautious about using it as an interpretive framework except when the evidence supports it.

Source: Brian A. Catlos, Kingdoms of Faith (Basic Books, 2018), but I collected the biographical details and art in the post. See also: Europa was an Asian woman, and other thoughts on the definition of Europe;  the history of the phrase “the West”; don’t name things Western but call out imperialism; to whom do the ancient Greeks belong?; Jesus was a person of color; etc.

I have never been good at Robert’s Rules of Order, even though decades ago I was the president of a student government that supposedly used them. Looking at the by-laws of incorporated boards and bodies that I serve on now, I see that several include language like this: “Except as may be modified by resolution, Robert’s Rules of Order (current edition) shall govern the conduct of [association] proceedings when not in conflict with [state] law or these By-Laws.” Indeed, I’ve found an estimate that “approximately 95% of the organizations in the U.S. prescribe Robert’s as their parliamentary authority.” However, lots of important but informal groups don’t have by-laws, and those that do often seem to pay little attention to their own provisions about Robert’s Rules.

I probably wouldn’t advocate applying Robert’s Rules much more widely than they are used now. Learning–or recalling–the Rules can be burdensome; depending on them can shift power to people who happen to know them already; and they may conflict with contemporary cultures. After all, they were written by a US Army officer in 1876.

Actually, Brig. Gen. Roberts was an abolitionist Southerner who fought on the Union side and did other worthy things, so he may deserve some consideration. In any event, his Rules embody wisdom, and all groups that make decisions should find ways to accomplish some of their fundamental goals. As Roberts wrote in the first edition of his Rules, it was “really not of so great importance” whether his own processes were the best. What was–and remains–important is to adopt transparent ways of operating in order to avoid “the caprice of the chairman, or captiousness of the members.”

That lesson has been re-learned in very different contexts. By 1970, the feminist activist Jo Freeman, aka Joreen, had become frustrated by the emphasis on “leaderless, structureless groups” in the women’s liberation movement. She acknowledged that women were reacting “against the over-structured society in which most of us found ourselves, and the inevitable control this gave others over our lives, and the continual elitism of the Left and similar groups among those who were supposedly fighting this overstructuredness.”

However, Freeman claimed that all groups have structure, and when they purport to be leaderless and free, it just means that the authority is opaque and therefore unaccountable.

She wrote, “At any small group meeting anyone with a sharp eye and an acute ear can tell who is influencing whom.” Those in the core of an informal group “will relate more to each other than to other people. They listen more attentively [to each other], and interrupt less; they repeat each other’s points and give in amiably; they tend to ignore or grapple with the ‘outs’ whose approval is not necessary for making a decision.”

Freeman saw supposedly leaderless groups as tyrannical. “For everyone to have the opportunity to be involved in a given group and to participate in its activities the structure must be explicit, not implicit. The rules of decision-making must be open and available to everyone, and this can happen only if they are formalized.”

Specifically, groups need explicit rules for delegating authority, sharing information, rotating responsibility, making clear commitments, and holding their own decision-makers accountable. These are the very purposes of Robert’s Rules. If we don’t want to use that document, we need alternatives.

I observe the following deficits in many informal groups’ discussions. First, groups are often not clear about what they have promised, so that members and others can know what to expect. An approved resolution is a commitment. If your group doesn’t vote on resolutions per Robert’s Rules, you need other ways to make clear and official commitments.

Second, it is often unclear what the group is doing at a given moment. Is it discussing a choice prior to making a collective decision? Are individuals giving advice to a person or small team who will make the decision? Are members sharing information with each other? Is the group exchanging perspectives on the overall situation and values? Is the task to identify problems and brainstorm options?

These are all valid activities, but they need to be distinguished. Robert’s Rules does so by allowing any member to offer a motion, which (if seconded) becomes the sole topic until it is resolved. A motion must be stated in such a way that it can be adopted or rejected by a vote. Thus, when a motion is on the table, the group’s task is to discuss it in order to inform the individuals’ votes, not to canvass individuals’ advice or share information. A different motion can be offered next, but it must wait its turn.

Informal groups waste precious time and energy–and become frustrated–when they are not clear on what they are doing. In the absence of rules of order, a moderator can keep people on track, but moderation is an advanced skill, and the power can be abused. Some groups develop other approaches, such as writing the current task on a flip chart. One way or another, it’s essential to clarify what is being done now and to allow people to propose doing something different next.

Third, groups need moments when everyone has equal power, even if they choose to empower some individuals for specific tasks. Robert’s Rules mandates voting on an equitable basis. It allows every member to introduce motions. It forbids anyone from speaking twice on a motion unless everyone has had a chance to speak once.

This kind of equality is purchased at the cost of formality. That is actually a familiar tradeoff. Official elections give each citizen one vote, and that requires ballots, voting dates or periods, and myriad other rules. Courtrooms are rife with procedures designed to equalize rights and powers.

Many groups understandably dislike formality, which seems to undermine spontaneous friendship. Yet, as Freeman observed in the women’s movement, informality breeds inequality. Groups must be able to shift to formal processes that protect equality at decisive moments.

Fourth, groups spend too much of the precious resource of time discussing matters that should delegated to individuals or small teams. A whole group is usually too large to function effectively. Many tasks do not present controversial issues that require broad discussion and participation; someone should simply do the work. At the same time, it is important to clarify what has been delegated to whom, to hold the responsible people accountable, and to give them explicit recognition for their service. Robert’s Rules accomplishes those purposes by allowing groups to elect officers for fixed terms, to establish committees, and to delegate specific tasks to committees. Again, there may be other ways to accomplish these purposes, but they cannot be ignored.

See also: a flowchart for collective decision-making in democratic small groups; civic education and the science of association; friendship and politics; needed: pragmatists for utopian experiments; and du Bois: “Organization is sacrifice.”

Folks from your Lou Frey Institute and other civic learning organizations had the great pleasure to attend the Opening Forum at the National Archives in Washington, DC for the kickoff of the first national Civic Learning Week. It was an excellent start to the week, and it featured a fantastic and engaging collection of speakers and guests.

You can view the entire event below, but I though that it might be helpful to share some thoughts and reflections on each session, and consider what this first week should mean moving forward. So if you want to see what you missed, view the video embedded below (it starts around the 36th minute) and read on!

We began with a welcome from Debra Steidel Wall, Acting Archivist of the United States, and Louise Dube, Executive Director of iCivics. The point made by the Acting Archivist is so important: ‘Access to powerful documents has never been more necessary’, and we encourage you to check out the new resource developed by our friends at NARA, Civics for All of US.

We then have our first panel discussion. This panel, Civic Education for a Plural Yet Shared Nation, was moderated by Danielle Allen of Harvard University. It featured a discussion between Christina Grant, Superintendent of Washington DC Public Schools, Benjamin Klutsey of George Mason University, and Dan Vallone of More in Common USA.

One of my favorite things about this forum is that so many good points were made so clearly, and during this panel, the participants identified two needs: 1. leaders who can emphasize common grounds in civic education, and 2. more collaboration to find common ground. To paraphrase,‘In the doing we learn about each other and dissolve the myths about each other’. It was also pointed out that polarization seems worse because the most extreme on left and right are the most loud. But civics helps us understand we are not as polarized as we think. Differences in thought can be enriching, and diversity in ideology is important…but it requires a willingness to listen and accept that dissent is a GOOD thing! This requires an improved understanding of civil discourse as well (aside: Florida has included a significant module on civil discourse and civic engagement in its new Seal of Civic Excellence course!).

Our second session was a much-too-brief conversation between Danielle Allen and Republican Governor Christopher Sununu of New Hampshire on prioritizing civic learning.

I wish we had more time with the governor. He talked about the importance of Founding Principles and the role of local government and the local community, and the wonderful example of the New England Town Meeting as a form of civic participation and learning. He was also quite funny, honestly, and his time was too short!

After the governor left the stage, we got a very in depth, and honestly a bit depressing, panel about research, evidence, and the impact of civic learning.

This panel, moderated by Nick Capodice and Hannah McCarthy of the Civics101 podcast, shared research from Joe Kahne of CERG and Julia Kaufman of RAND discussing research around civic education and social studies. The RAND study was very disturbing though for those of us in the field perhaps not suprising.

In short, social studies continues to suffer from a lack of attention, and lack of resources, at the K-5 level. It gets deeper, and I enourage you to read their report here. The lack of quality resources is a HUGE problem. How do we build a consensus to address it??? Something to think about.

Relatedly, CERG looked at what is happening in the classrooms around tough topics and civil discourse.

The data concerning UNCIVIL discourse at the k-12 level is concerning, and the lack of professional development on how to conduct discussions of controversial issues is disturbing…but an opportunity for those of us in the field. Kahne pointed out that districts that make clear statements of support concerning civic education see improved outcomes and instruction and less problems in civic instruction and learning around difficult topics. Both researchers shared their thoughts on what needed to be done: a consensus on high quality resources and materials, and a need for professional development around leading discussions on controversial issues. Well said. How do we do them?

Following that sometimes depressing but always necessary discussion, Lee Glazer, director of the Museum Programs Division at NARA, talked some more about the importance of Civics for All of US. I want to reiterate again what an important resource this can be.

One of the most interesting and exciting panels followed. Hearing students talk about civic education and its impact on their learning and their lives was simply fantastic.

Moderated by Andrea Foggy-Paxton, Entrepeneur-Residence of Education Leaders of Color, it brought together parents and teachers Tanisha Carpenter, Amber Coleman-Mortley, and Neil Wrona to discuss civic education and engagement with students Roman Messali, Garvey Mortley, and Sarah Rivera. It was fantastic, and some key comments stuck with me:
-‘Civic experiences happen on a day to day basis. We engage in civic practice everyday.’
-‘Civics is a love language.’
-‘We have to support and appreciate our teachers for civic education to happen in this polarizing environment.’
-‘There is a lot of civic education happening in classrooms and schools that we don’t realize.’
-‘Those of us that are able to sit in a room with people that we don’t agree with, that we vehemently disagree with, and have civil conversations that get us to a place [of understanding] that is the power of civics.’
-‘Justice is heavily tied to civics. It is not separate.’
-‘Civics education is about problem solving.’
-‘Student engagement around issues that matter. Real people that can make a real difference.’
-‘Being able to have real conversations. Learn how to talk to people.’
-‘Analysis should be prioritized. Civics Ed is a right.’

There was so much more that was said, including the importance of student government. But I just want to thank these folks for sharing their thoughts, and for the Civic Learning Week team in bringing them in. It was fantastic.

The final panel session of the day was moderated by Crystal Patterson of Washington Media Group.

The discussion between Yuval Levin of the American Enterprise Institute, Miriam Vogel of EqualAI, and Sam Wineburg Stanford University dived deep into digital democracy, social media, artifical intelligence, and information literacy. Levin made a great point that sticks with me even now: ‘Educators also have to help people unlearn what is untrue.’ This is such a huge struggle, especially as many of the people we are trying to teach have no idea what they know is untrue. Levin went on to say that“Just being engaged, just participating is not enough. We have to have a set of skills for distinguishing truths from falsehood.” We MUST help students understand the civic system and civic life they live and engage in in order to innoculate them against conspiracy theory and falsehood. As Wineburg said, ‘Information literacy should be a non-partisan issue’, but sadly, it sometimes seems it is not. And the Internet can help make people more informed…or more confused. It was a really interesting conversation across all three panel participants, and I fear that we are not doing enough to support not just media literacy but information literacy.

We then had a video presentation from Brandon Short, with PGIM Real Estate and a former Giants and Panthers football player (GO PATS).

Short discussed the connection between civic engagement, civic learning, and the American Dream, and it was an inspiring and motivational few minutes!

Finally, we wrapped up with Shawn Healy of iCivics and Rajiv Vinnakota of the Institute for Citizens and Scholars.

Together, they summarized the three main themes of the opening forum:
1. Need to reimagine civic education to include civil discourse and the relationship challenge; Question how we help kids distinguish truth from falsehood (information literacy);use all spaces as civic spaces; 2.Local work as our work; lynchpin of civic progress; 3. Everyone is a civic teacher. We all help students grow in civic life.

As Healey said to close, civics should be in our bloodstream. Teachers want PD, so let’s give it to them. And we all want better civics, so let’s fund it!

Moving Forward

Civic Learning Week should be Civic Learning Year, all year, all day, every day. We have a responsibility to the next generation of participants in civic life to provide them with the tools and the resources to engage and to grow and to learn what it means to live up to our Founding Principles and to improve our communities. Sadly, I think we have been saying that since the Founding; while we have made progress in civic education, we must continue to grow and to ensure access and opportunity and strong foundation of knowledge. We look forwrad to working with colleagues in Florida and across the country in following up on the goals of Civic Learning Week. Because, after all, civics is a love language.