PACE Primer: Democracy
Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement (PACE) is a community of funders that invest in the sustaining elements of U.S. democracy and civic life — themes that are as sweeping and complex as they are central to the health of our nation. For us, civic engagement is a practice — the practice that makes the system of democracy possible. And as part of our continued effort to support the work of our field, we’ve developed a series of primers to help funders and practitioners think and talk about these ideas. The primers break these broad themes down into their component parts, help to illustrate how the pieces fit together, and serve as a starting place to ground conversation and strategy for funders and practitioners. We started with two concepts that are fundamental to our work: civic engagement then civic education.
Today, as democracy continues to be at the center of speculation, concern, and diagnosis in our public square, we’ve realized a renewed need to connect civic practices to the larger conversations happening about democracy. We see civic engagement and democracy as two sides of the same coin — if democracy is a noun, civic engagement is the verb that brings it to life. And we’ve expanded our series of tools to illustrate the connection between them. Through a visual chart and an accompanying glossary of key terms, our newest tool, the PACE Primer: Democracy highlights the values, norms, and institutions of U.S. democracy, how they fit together, and how everyday Americans play a role in each piece.
You can view and download the full Democracy Primer here. To view the full suite of PACE primers, visit pacefunders.org/primer.
