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	<title>Civic Studies &#187; civic theory</title>
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	<description>An intellectual community of researchers and practitioners dedicated to building the emerging field of civic studies</description>
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		<title>Juergen Habermas (1929-2026)</title>
		<link>https://peterlevine.ws/?p=35382</link>
		<comments>https://peterlevine.ws/?p=35382#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 16 Mar 2026 17:21:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Peter]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[civic theory]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Continental philosophy]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://peterlevine.ws/?p=35382</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[J&#252;rgen Habermas died on Saturday. His death has been the occasion for several substantial and interesting obituaries. So far, I prefer Gal Beckerman&#8217;s in the New York Times. I took a seminar on Habermas in 1988, when I was a college junior. Georgia Warnke was the professor, and I have kept her useful packet of [&#8230;] <a href="https://peterlevine.ws/?p=35382">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>Hannah Arendt seminar</title>
		<link>https://peterlevine.ws/?p=35123</link>
		<comments>https://peterlevine.ws/?p=35123#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 14 Jan 2026 17:42:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Peter]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[civic theory]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Continental philosophy]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://peterlevine.ws/?p=35123</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Below is the syllabus of the seminar on Hannah Arendt that I will teach this semester. (I&#8217;d still accept suggestions!) I&#8217;ve removed all the practical information except for my policy on AI, just in case that&#8217;s useful for other teachers. Hannah Arendt (1906-75) personally experienced some of the great events of the 20th century, interacted [&#8230;] <a href="https://peterlevine.ws/?p=35123">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://civicstudies.org/2026/01/14/hannah-arendt-seminar/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>an international discussion of polarization</title>
		<link>https://peterlevine.ws/?p=35120</link>
		<comments>https://peterlevine.ws/?p=35120#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 13 Jan 2026 18:16:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Peter]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[civic theory]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[democratic reform overseas]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://peterlevine.ws/?p=35120</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Last October,&#160;THE CIVICS Innovation Hub&#160;and the&#160;European School of Politics&#160;convened an international group in Istanbul for a conversation about &#8220;trust and polarisation.&#8221; Kameliya Tomova has written a nice summary. I&#8217;ll paste the portion that mentions me below and recommend the rest as well. (Note that I was talking here about the world, not necessarily or specifically [&#8230;] <a href="https://peterlevine.ws/?p=35120">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://civicstudies.org/2026/01/13/an-international-discussion-of-polarization/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>Hannah Arendt: “The problem wasn’t what our enemies did, but what our friends did”</title>
		<link>https://peterlevine.ws/?p=34217</link>
		<comments>https://peterlevine.ws/?p=34217#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 14 Jul 2025 13:33:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Peter]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[civic theory]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Philosophy]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://peterlevine.ws/?p=34217</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Here is a clip that resonates today. It is from Hannah Arendt&#8217;s 1964 interview on German television. The journalist G&#252;nter Gaus takes her through her life, from her childhood in K&#246;nigsburg to the controversy about her 1963 Eichmann book. At this point in the conversation, Arendt has been describing her work in France in 1933-1941. [&#8230;] <a href="https://peterlevine.ws/?p=34217">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://civicstudies.org/2025/07/14/hannah-arendt-the-problem-wasnt-what-our-enemies-did-but-what-our-friends-did/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>the meanings of ‘civility’</title>
		<link>https://peterlevine.ws/?p=34156</link>
		<comments>https://peterlevine.ws/?p=34156#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 24 Jun 2025 13:02:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Peter]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[civic theory]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://peterlevine.ws/?p=34156</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[If you Google the word &#8220;civility,&#8221; the Internet tells you that it means &#8220;formal politeness and courtesy in behavior or speech.&#8221; This bothers me a bit because the word has had other meanings. Besides, demanding &#8220;formal politeness and courtesy&#8221; in politics can be a way of suppressing criticism and agitation. William H. Chafe describes how [&#8230;] <a href="https://peterlevine.ws/?p=34156">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://civicstudies.org/2025/06/24/the-meanings-of-civility/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>democracy’s crisis: a system map</title>
		<link>https://peterlevine.ws/?p=34137</link>
		<comments>https://peterlevine.ws/?p=34137#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 11 Jun 2025 13:43:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Peter]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[civic theory]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Trump]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://peterlevine.ws/?p=34137</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The graphic that accompanies this post shows 16 explanations for democracy&#8217;s current crisis for which I think there is persuasive evidence. The arrows indicate significant causal relationships among these factors. The details are entirely debatable. The main point of this model is to suggest a mode of diagnosis and prescription that is different from the [&#8230;] <a href="https://peterlevine.ws/?p=34137">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://civicstudies.org/2025/06/11/democracys-crisis-a-system-map/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>rule of law means more than obeying laws: a richer vision to guide post-Trump reconstruction</title>
		<link>https://peterlevine.ws/?p=33936</link>
		<comments>https://peterlevine.ws/?p=33936#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 29 Apr 2025 15:42:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Peter]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[civic theory]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Trump]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://peterlevine.ws/?p=33936</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Trump Administration flouts the rule of law by denying its obligation to obey statutes and court rulings. On April 22, two TIME magazine reporters drew Trump&#8217;s attention to a portrait of John Adams that he had &#8220;put in&#8221; the White House. They quoted Adams to the effect that a republic is a government of [&#8230;] <a href="https://peterlevine.ws/?p=33936">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://civicstudies.org/2025/04/29/rule-of-law-means-more-than-obeying-laws-a-richer-vision-to-guide-post-trump-reconstruction/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>remarks on partisanship</title>
		<link>https://peterlevine.ws/?p=33928</link>
		<comments>https://peterlevine.ws/?p=33928#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 25 Apr 2025 15:44:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Peter]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[civic theory]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://peterlevine.ws/?p=33928</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[(Columbus) These are my notes for a talk today at Ohio State University on the assigned topic of &#8220;civic partisanship&#8221;: If &#8220;partisanship&#8221; means active membership in a political party, then it is desirable. Parties can be worthy components of our civil society, especially when parties are internally diverse and meaningfully organized at the local and [&#8230;] <a href="https://peterlevine.ws/?p=33928">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://civicstudies.org/2025/04/25/remarks-on-partisanship/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>building a democracy helpdesk</title>
		<link>https://peterlevine.ws/?p=33776</link>
		<comments>https://peterlevine.ws/?p=33776#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 24 Mar 2025 15:16:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Peter]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[advocating civic education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[civic theory]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://peterlevine.ws/?p=33776</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This one-minute video introduces a project that Tufts engineering faculty and students and I have begun, with Better Together America and some pro bono advice from the Harvard Law School Transactional Law Clinics. In essence, we are trying to improve Americans&#8217; know-how for launching and sustaining organizations, on the theory that civic organizations preserve democracy. [&#8230;] <a href="https://peterlevine.ws/?p=33776">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://civicstudies.org/2025/03/24/building-a-democracy-helpdesk/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>important findings about the persuasive power of facts</title>
		<link>https://peterlevine.ws/?p=33770</link>
		<comments>https://peterlevine.ws/?p=33770#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 20 Mar 2025 19:51:19 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Peter]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[civic theory]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[deliberation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[epistemic networks]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://peterlevine.ws/?p=33770</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[There is a huge body of research that suggests that people are not very susceptible to good arguments. Apparently, we believe things for unexamined reasons, cherry-pick evidence to support our intuitive beliefs, and minimize the significance of inconvenient evidence. These findings contribute to a general skepticism about people&#8217;s capacity for democracy, and I fear that [&#8230;] <a href="https://peterlevine.ws/?p=33770">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://civicstudies.org/2025/03/20/important-findings-about-the-persuasive-power-of-facts/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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