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The Authoritarianism We Have Not Yet Confronted
By Jarvis Williams What the Rooms Told Me Over the past three years, first as Director for Race and Democracy and most recently as a Democracy Fellow with the Horizons Project, I have had the privilege of doing some of the most meaningful work of my life. That arc, from leading conversations across the country…
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Our Relationship to The Future: Narratives, Imagination Skills and Futures Literacy
How do we think and talk about the future? This is one of the tension points Horizons has identified within the social change ecosystem: our different feelings about and relationships to the future that can impact the way we approach our work and our partnerships. Many want to “focus on the future” as a way of finding…
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The VISTA: June 2026
In June, we kicked off the World Cup in the US, Mexico, and Canada and the No ICE in the Cup initiative ramped up as well. This has been a truly cross-pillar effort and there is still time to get involved: you can download the commissioned (free) artwork here; share sample sermon guides with your…
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The Superpowers of Faith Communities in the Pro-Democracy Movement
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Protecting Our Democracy: The Role of Veterans and Military Families
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The Big-Tent, Broad-Front Democracy Movement
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Responding to Political Violence and Repression Under Authoritarian Consolidation
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GUIDE: Harnessing Our Power to End Political Violence
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The VISTA: May 2026
The big news in May was the Supreme Court’s Callais decision, effectively gutting the Voting Rights Act, and the massive mobilization and organizing that has been taking place in response throughout the South and around the country. Thomas Zimmer writes about the historic throughline of this moment in Multiracial Democracy is Young and Fragile. And…
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THE VISTA: April 2026
The big news this April included the landslide electoral loss of Viktor Orbán in Hungary. You can read this analysis by Thomas Carothers, “when entrenched, dominant-party regimes are ousted from office, it typically stems from either the incumbent’s accumulated missteps or the opposition’s scrappy resourcefulness. In Hungary, both dynamics were at play.” And this article by Anne…
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Argentine Catholic Clergy Oppose Javier Milei
After winning Argentina’s 2023 elections, Javier Milei implemented restrictions on key democratic freedoms, such as the right to protest, prohibited the use of inclusive language, and led efforts to sanitize the legacy of the military dictatorship. Argentina’s Catholic Church, historically oscillating between supporting autocracy and democracy, has increasingly opposed Milei’s agenda, particularly his economic policies…
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Strategy Is Not the Problem: Why Issue-Based and Systems Approaches Break Under Pressure without Defensible Decisions
The Familiar Choice – and Why It Feels Real Organizations across the nonprofit sector—particularly those focused on protecting or strengthening democratic institutions—are operating under conditions where their decisions are no longer treated as technical or neutral. Those decisions are interpreted, questioned, and contested as expressions of priority and power. The Center for Effective Philanthropy’s report, A…
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Defending Local Stability: The Business Response
How business owners and leaders can prepare for possible federal deployments, protect their teams, and advocate for their communities.
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Faith as a Civic Counterweight in the Southeast: A Philanthropic Case for Investing in Faith‑Based Civic Formation
On a Sunday morning in Mississippi, a pastor rises to speak. The sermon may begin with scripture, but it rarely ends there. It stretches into the realm of public life — into questions of authority, justice, belonging, and the meaning of the nation itself. In the Southeast, this is not an anomaly. It is the…
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THE VISTA: March 2026
This month, many around the country are preparing for the next No Kings rallies taking place on March 28. This is a helpful article by Micah Sifry on getting ready: “the vast and growing pro-democracy movement in America has two key tasks to focus on as that day approaches and arrives: task one: inviting new…
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When Strategy Signals Instability
What “A Sector in Crisis: How U.S. Nonprofits and Foundations Are Responding to Threats” reveals about the philanthropic field—and why strategic coherence matters Introduction: A Signal in the CEP Report A recent report from the Center for Effective Philanthropy, “A Sector in Crisis: How U.S. Nonprofits and Foundations Are Responding to Threats,” offers a revealing…
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THE VISTA: February 2026
In February, we celebrated 100 years of Black History Month , with commemorations and invitations to communities to “reflect not only on the history itself, but on how the rituals of remembering have helped shape culture, identity, and national understanding of Black life.” We also joined in the joyful celebration of this year’s Super Bowl…
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Organizing Under Political Stress: Structural Clarity Before Engagement Is a Governance Imperative
Governing Claim When urgency-driven national engagement meets place-based ecosystems managing the lived consequences of democratic decisions, risk is redistributed asymmetrically. If that redistribution is not understood and calibrated in advance, engagement contributes to democratic erosion rather than democratic renewal. National and Place-Based Engagement Operate Under Structurally Different Logics For more than half a century, the…
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Democracy & Belonging: Learning Across the Atlantic
Listen to powerful conversations with organizers, thinkers, and movement builders in the U.S and Europe as they explore what it really takes to strengthen democracy from the inside out. This series is a co-production of the Horizons Project and the Othering & Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley with the support of Valor Media Network. Episode…
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THE VISTA: January 2026
For many, it feels like we’ve been shot out of a cannon since the start of the new year. As we marked the five-year anniversary of the January 6th insurrection, we saw important reflections on the impact of the presidential pardons of those jailed for those violent crimes while celebrating the release of the latest edition of the alternative reality, J6 comic series. “On January 3rd, the American military extracted the murderous dictator Nicolás Maduro from Caracas. On January 7th, ICE killed a mother in…
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History, Resistance and Democracy: Reflections on Visiting the Phoenix Indian School
Members of the Growers Guild recently came together in Phoenix, Arizona. While there, they visited the Phoenix Indian School, which was established in 1891 as a boarding school for American Indian children by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. In the essays below, two members of the Growers Guild reflect on this history, their visit, and what we…
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Facilitating a Big Tent: Critical Connections for Pro-Democracy Organizing
As we enter the second year of the current administration in the United States, calls for coming together to collaborate across siloes within the pro-democracy sector are louder than ever. The speed of authoritarian consolidation at the national level is swift and compounding, with real consequences both globally and at home. Many feel as though…
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ICE Violence and the Struggle to Make Meaning:
What Narrative Power Is Doing in Minnesota, and Beyond By Eleonore Wesserle The murders of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good by ICE in Minnesota were not an anomaly or a breakdown. They were political violence made standard operating procedure through intentional narrative strategy. Claiming the field of meaning is an all too foreseeable authoritarian…
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U.S. Catholics are facing an authoritarian threat. The church has been here before.
The Catholic Church in the United States today is facing a crucial test. How will the church lead under what the New York Times columnist Ross Douthat calls an “imperial presidency,” marked by daily attacks on human dignity, religious liberty and the republican constitutional order? Will Catholic leadership accommodate and adapt itself to authoritarian power?…
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Nonviolent Action Resources and Training
Nonviolent movements are statistically more effective at combatting authoritarianism than violent resistance. Anyone can engage in nonviolent action: from quiet acts of disruption to consumer boycotts to walkouts to large-scale protests. When you get large numbers of people engaged in these acts of defiance and building of alternatives, they can take power back from a repressive regime. Nonviolent…
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Authoritarianism: How You Know It When You See It
What is democracy? Forms of rights-based representative government in which: Source: Our Common Purpose: Reinventing American Democracy for the 21st Century What is authoritarianism? Authoritarianism is a constellation of traits in a political, economic, and/or social system, which often include: What is it not? What are the core attributes of authoritarianism? What are the top elements…
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Race and Democracy
Within the broad ecosystem of social change in the US, we often find a lack of alignment between racial justice and pro-democracy agendas. At best, there are siloed efforts of potential allies—and at worst, considerations of race are left out of democracy reform or civic revitalization work because it is seen as too “divisive” or…
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Big Tents and Collective Action Can Defeat Authoritarianism
In their New York Times essay, Steven Levitsky, Lucan Way, and Daniel Ziblatt argue that the United States has crossed over into a form of competitive authoritarianism, a system that may have elections but in which dissent is costly and the playing field is tilted against the opposition. Civil rights attorney Sherrilyn Ifill has long sounded…
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The Brain on Authoritarianism
The Horizons Project and Beyond Conflict partnered to create this video on ‘The Brain on Authoritarianism’ to support broad-based “united front” organizing in response to the rising authoritarian threat in the US and globally. Better understanding the brain’s response to fear, toxic othering, and threats to social identity will help pro-democracy organizers to confront the…
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Block, Bridge, and Build: A Framework to Forge a More Democratic Future
We are living through a period of upheaval. In this world of uncertainty, one thing is clear: The need for coordinated, collective action is urgent. Recently, the people at Convergence Magazine developed a very useful framework called Block and Build. Others in the solidarity economy movement have offered a similar framework called Resist and Build. Here I want to highlight…
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When Loyalties Shift: Americans’ Growing Noncooperation with Federal Abuses of Power
Evidence shows that an increasing number of Americans from all walks of life and from various economic sectors and political identities disapprove of — and are refusing to accept — mounting abuses of power and anti-democratic actions by the Trump administration. These signs, whether small and subtle or vivid and public, indicate that the political…
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Understanding Pillars of Support
In both the United States and abroad, political leaders have undermined democratic institutions and norms as part of a nearly two-decade global trend of rising authoritarianism. To challenge these threats, research shows we need social movements involving broad, diverse coalitions that are tactically innovative and united around a shared strategy of success. These movements also need a clear…
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Fascism and Isolation vs. Democracy and Interconnection: The Narrative Antidote to Authoritarianism
By Mónica Roa, Puentes One way to understand our time is as a battleground of intense narrative disputes. On one side, the climate emergency, the impact of artificial intelligence on employment, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the growing loneliness crisis all reveal our interdependence. What happens in one country affects many others, the decisions of a…
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THE VISTA: December 2025
As 2025 comes to a close, many of us may still be trying to make sense of what we are living through with the second Trump administration. This article offers several distinct but complementary narratives: “Uncertainty about where we find ourselves in political time—’back to the future,’ back to the GOP of 1989, or back…
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Horizons Welcomes Ruth Moreno as Director for Ecosystem Engagement
The Horizons Project team is excited to announce that Ruth Moreno has joined our team as Director of Ecosystem Engagement. Ruth is a Dominican Afro-Latine strategist, facilitator, and organizer with over a decade of experience building coalitions, strengthening political infrastructure, and supporting organizations to work more cohesively toward shared goals. She specializes in designing alignment…
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THE VISTA: November 2025
The political waters have felt especially choppy in November. The Associated Press provided a series of helpful charts to digest the results of the general elections; and although the government shutdown is over, this article describes the ways that not everything is back to normal for many in the country. The Partnership for Public Service…
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THE VISTA: October 2025
During the month of October, we experienced one of the largest mobilizations in US history with the No Kings marches around the country and world; and this article from Harvard’s Crowd Counting Consortium shows that “protests in 2025 have reached a wider swath of the United States than at any other point on record.” If…
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THE VISTA: September 2025
September has been a particularly frenetic month for all of us as the fight for democracy continues to be waged on several fronts. As Nonprofit AF reminds us, Let’s Try to be Nicer to Ourselves and One Another While We Fight Against Fascism. Some helpful resources if you’re trying to keep up with the onslaught:…
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Shifting Pillar Loyalties: A Guide for the Pro-Democracy Community
This toolkit is intended to help Americans of all backgrounds navigate this crisis and defend democracy, which we define in terms of safeguarding our political institutions, holding elected leaders accountable, protecting our communities, and promoting freedom and opportunity for future generations.
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Lessons on Broad Based Organizing from the Utah Compromise: A BOLD Case Study
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THE VISTA: August 2025
At the beginning of the month, a new report released by Civicus placed the US on its civil society watchlist following sustained attacks on civic freedoms. “Civicus pointed to three major issues including the deployment of military to quell protests, growing restrictions placed on journalists and civil society, as well as the aggressive targeting of…
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Korean Clergy and Monastics Resist Martial Law
When scripture becomes strategy: lessons from Korean clergy resisting authoritarianism through faith.
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Reimagining Masculinity: Reevaluating the Aspirations of All Boys and Men in the Fight for Democracy
Across philanthropic, academic, and policy landscapes, a growing national discourse is emerging around the well-being of men and boys. What was once seen as a peripheral concern is now gaining traction as a matter of social and civic urgency. Rising rates of mental health crises, suicide, and educational underachievement—particularly among marginalized young men—signal that these…
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THE VISTA: July 2025
This month we celebrated the Fourth of July with thousands of people expressing their wishes for the future of our country at an art installation at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History as a part of the Civic Season celebration. Ben Naimark-Rowse also reminded us in ‘The Founding Myth of the United States’ that…
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Salvadoran Catholic Clergy Condemn Bukele’s Attack on Freedom
Time Period: 2020-2025Location: El SalvadorMain Actors: Catholic clergy, Cardinal Gregorio Rosa ChávezTactics– Letters of opposition or support– Signed public statements– Prayer and worship Nayib Bukele was elected president of El Salvador in June 2019. Bukele won by positioning himself outside of the political mainstream and by promising to crack down on gang violence, although he took office…
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THE VISTA: June 2025
During the month of June, Pride celebrations continued to unfold, with important new resources on the global struggle over gender rights provided by our friends at the Carnegie Endowment. The celebration of Juneteenth was also an important reminder that the fight for freedom is not over. New research validates that many people around the world…
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THE VISTA: May 2025
In the month of May, we reflected on the 5th anniversary of George Floyd’s murder and the progress, backlash, and lessons since that summer of reckoning. The first hundred days of the Trump administration was a hot topic with attempts to assess the levels of authoritarian consolidation, and how we will know if we’ve lost…
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From Interconnection to a “Larger Us”: Expanding Circles of Identity, Care, and Solidarity (Part II)
By Mónica Roa, Puentes In the first part of this blog, I explored how the narrative of interconnection can serve as an antidote to authoritarianism by challenging fear-based stories that fragment society and erode solidarity. But if we want this narrative to transform not just how we understand the world but also how we inhabit…
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THE VISTA: April 2025
April 2025 has been a month when many new voices have been waking up and openly decrying the serious crisis facing U.S. democracy; and, at the same time we see Black Americans explaining why they are not surprised by the current authoritarian resurgence in the country. In the face of the multiple attacks on our…
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From Interconnection to a “Larger Us”: Expanding Circles of Identity, Care, and Solidarity (Part I)
By Mónica Roa, Puentes In a world where public spaces for social interaction are vanishing and digital platforms promote isolation through hyper-personalized consumption of entertainment and services, at Puentes, we propose interconnection as a narrative antidote to authoritarianism. In my previous blog, I argued that the narrative of extreme individualism erodes community bonds, fuels excessive…
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Reflections on Democracy and Belonging: Our Journey
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THE VISTA: March 2025
March has felt like an exceptionally long month, but as we collectively make sense of what is happening in the United States right now, we believe it’s important to listen to respected academics who can help provide clarity. For example, take a listen to this recent interview with Anne Applebaum on the “Axis of Autocracy”…
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THE VISTA: February 2025
Black History Month was celebrated this February even though “suddenly the study of the Black experience may feel like an act of defiance.” Additionally, the National Day of Remembrance was celebrated on February 19th – offering an important occasion for solidarity as we mark 83 years since the forced removal and incarceration of more than…
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THE VISTA: January 2025
January 2025 has been quite a month so far. We started off by honoring the life and legacy of President Jimmy Carter and reflected on his warnings about the American oligarchy and his wisdom on civic populism. As we entered the new year with resolutions, some shared how they would be doubling down on racial…
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Buddhist Monks Defect from Myanmar’s Military Dictatorship
From 1962-2011, and again since 2021, Myanmar (Burma) has been formally ruled by military autocrats employing extreme brutality to maintain control. As around 90% of Myanmar identifies as Buddhist, Buddhist monks have a unique social position. Historically, they have leveraged their positionality to support the military by providing them moral legitimacy through rituals–namely accepting their…
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What’s Happening at Horizons in 2025
As we launch into the new year, the Horizons’ team wanted to share some insights that are guiding much of our work in 2025. We are so grateful to all of our many partners who are an integral part of our sensemaking, shaping where we place our energies and our ability to adapt in such…
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The Egyptian Military Defects During the Arab Spring
Between 1981-2011 Egypt was under the authoritarian rule of Hosni Mubarak, with the military serving as a key pillar of support. Yet when Egyptians began organizing mass anti-government protests, the military had mixed responses–despite Mubarak urging violent crackdowns. While they didn’t enforce curfew and, on one occasion, even positioned tanks in between protesters and police,…
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South African Clergy Support Early Defections from Apartheid
Christian clergy played an important role in creating, supporting, and eventually disrupting apartheid in South Africa. Immediately post-1948, despite the threat of repression, there were a few examples of defiance, including statements and participation in protests. However, the larger wave of defections only began after the Sharpeville Massacre, with previously apathetic actors leveraging their voices…
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The Chilean Security Sector Defects from the Pinochet Dictatorship
In 1973, a group of military officers led by General Augusto Pinochet and supported by the United States government overthrew Chile’s democratically elected, socialist president, Salvador Allende. During the transition, and throughout their authoritarian rule, Pinochet’s military junta relied heavily on a range of devastating human rights violations to maintain control and repress their critics.…
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South African Business Leaders Oppose Apartheid
The pressure to end Apartheid in South Africa was closely linked with the business pillar. Grassroots-led consumer boycotts seriously impacted local economies, weakened state governance structures, and galvanized international boycotts – culminating in a national state of emergency in 1985. Then, by the 1980s and following the 1976 Soweto Uprising, these impressive acts of civil…
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THE VISTA: December 2024
As the year comes to a close, we wish for all our partners deep rest and connection with family and friends. Enjoy this article by the National Civic League to inspire your community connections, A Simple Recipe for Complex Community Change: Make Stone Soup. While many of us feel we are heading into a period…
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Advancing Racial Justice With Futures Thinking and Approaches
*This article was written by Director for Race and Democracy Jarvis Williams. The future of racial justice work is fraught with challenges in this moment. Therefore, Horizons’ Chief Network Weaver, Julia Roig and I spent the entire year of 2024 thinking together and trying to identify ways to support racial justice practitioners and to break…
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THE VISTA: November 2024
Here we are at the end of November on the other side of the US elections, and if you haven’t read enough post-election analysis yet, check out this crowdsourced bibliography of articles organized by Eli Pariser of New_Public. We would especially recommend this piece by Rebecca Solnit about how to stay grounded in love in…
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THE VISTA: October 2024
As the month of October comes to an end, the US elections are finally upon us and there are many resources and insights to support all the diverse efforts underway. Andrea Hailey, the CEO at Vote.org reminds us that Your Vote Has a History: Here’s Why It’s Important. Anne Applebaum has offered A citizen’s guide to…
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Lessons from Around the World: Engaging ‘Pillars of Support’ to Uphold and Expand Democracy
*This article was written by Chief Organizer Maria J. Stephan and was first published on Just Security. Efforts in the United States to build a broad, cross-partisan, and cross-ideological pro-democratic front in the lead-up to the November elections is reminiscent of the kind of pro-democracy, anti-authoritarian movements that recently defeated far-right autocrats in Brazil, Poland, and…
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Introducing the Pillars of Support Project
In both the United States and abroad, political leaders have undermined democratic institutions and norms as part of a nearly two-decade global trend of rising authoritarianism. From the January 6 capitol attack to the weakening of Hungarian opposition parties and attacks on Brazilian journalists, anti-democratic forces have grown in strength. Yet these forces have not…
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THE VISTA: September 2024
At the UN General Assembly this month, the Pact for the Future was passed, including two annexes: the Global Digital Compact and the Declaration for Future Generations. The School of International Futures released an Implementation Handbook for the Pact – Working for the Wellbeing of Current and Future Generations; and you can read about how democracy…
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Tunisian Unions Support the Arab Spring
The Tunisian General Labour Union’s (UGTT) well-established and far-reaching infrastructure enabled it to play an indispensable role in Tunisia’s revolution. While the UGTT was originally a core pillar upholding autocracy under Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, after the Tunisian “Jasmine” revolution began and regime repression increased, UGTT leaders opted for a more confrontational policy. Specifically,…
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Business for Democracy: A Call for Courage and Action
*This article was written by Chief Network Weaver Julia Roig. There is ample evidence that democracies around the world are being threatened by authoritarian populist forces, and that the best antidote to stemming this tide is broad-based, “big tent” organizing to stand up for democratic norms and freedoms. This multi-sectoral, cross-ideological approach is the basis…
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Brazilian Religious Leaders and Democratic Backsliding
Jair Bolsonaro won the 2018 election in large part because of support from Evangelicals, which had the surprising and encouraging impact of galvanizing pro-democracy efforts by Catholics, despite norms enforced from the Vatican that discourage explicit politicking. Their efforts focused on letter writing and public statements which ranged from condemning Bolsonaro’s management of COVID-19 and…
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Philippines Armed Forces Resist a Dictatorship
The armed forces served as a key pillar propping up President Ferdinand Marcos’ dictatorship in the Philippines from 1965-86. After another unfree election in 1986, a dissatisfied military faction, called the Reform the Armed Forces Movement (RAM), occupied multiple military camps, leading to a standoff with loyalist forces. RAM’s leadership coordinated with Catholic Cardinal Jaime…
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Teachers in Hungary Oppose Democratic Backsliding
One key target of democratic backsliding in Hungary is the education system. The dismissal of five teachers in 2022 for striking galvanized tens of thousands of teachers, parents, and students to protest low wages, censorship, and the government more generally. Participants employed a variety of creative protest tactics and aligned with Hungarian civil society who…
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The Quakers Advance Democracy in the US Civil Rights Movement
Despite their small size, Quakers served as an important pillar in undoing the US’ authoritarian, exclusive status quo as part of the civil rights movement. Largely through the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), Quakers supported the Montgomery bus boycott, participated in the Poor People’s Campaign, disseminated key texts, and brought MLK to New Delhi where…
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Brazilian Business Leaders Push Back on an Illiberal President
Brazil became less free and democratic during Jair Bolsonaro’s presidency from 2019-2022, culminating in a January 6th style attack where Bolsonaro supporters attempted to disrupt the transfer of power to President Lula da Silva in January 2023. While Bolsonaro enjoyed extensive support from leaders of the business pillar during and after his time in office,…
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Sensemaking
Addressing complex challenges like authoritarian resurgence, political violence, and systemic racism requires multiple approaches and learning across communities and disciplines. The Horizons Project is committed to curating and synthesizing insights and tools that can help practitioners make sense of the wider ecosystem and see the relationship between what they are doing and what others are…
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THE VISTA: August 2024
August has featured renewed energy about the upcoming elections, and we continue to focus on how to prevent election subversion in the US while taking stock of the ways states are strengthening their democratic institutions for the long term. Project 2025 continues to receive needed attention, such as this overview by the Kettering Foundation analyzing…
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New Initiative Launched to Counter the Growing Threat of Political Violence in Communities across the US: HOPE-PV Campaign Moving People to Take “Courageous” Action
A groundbreaking initiative to address the growing threat of political violence in US communities is making its national launch. Because political violence poses a significant threat to democracy, security, and the values of our country, the 22nd Century Initiative (22CI) and the Horizons Project launch their new initiative: Harnessing Our Power to End Political Violence…
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THE VISTA: July 2024
What a month! July started off with our Independence Day in the US, including many civic season celebrations around the country. While we are reeling from the murder of Sonya Massey in Illinois who was fatally shot by a deputy while responding to her 911 call, the shooting of former President Trump brought this long-standing…
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Labor Unions Join the Fight for Civil Rights
A key element of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s (SCLC) strategy was leveraging existing communities to then mobilize individuals into a collective movement. Accordingly, the SCLC developed a strong alliance with labor unions under the banner of “jobs and freedom.” Unions supported SCLC campaigns by organizing their members to participate in direct-action protests and marches…
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Sensemaking with Horizons: Shun Tucker-Allen, Senior Faith Partnerships Coordinator of Fair Count
The Horizons Project Director for Race & Democracy, Jarvis Williams, has a conversation with Shun Tucker-Allen, Senior Faith Partnerships Coordinator at Fair Count about her work organizing with faith communities in the South. As more pro-democracy organizers and funders seek to engage more deeply with faith communities around the country, Shun shares her experience of…
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Veterans Defend Standing Rock Protesters
Witnessing the violence from the National Guard against peaceful protesters at Standing Rock, and wanting to use their experience and social capital, veterans organized a campaign to protect protesters from violence. The group “Veterans Stand for Standing Rock” crowdfunded a campaign which raised over $500,000 to purchase supplies and organized 2000+ veterans to show up…
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Venezuelan Military Officers Refuse Honors from a Dictator
During Venezuela’s 2000 election, opposition parties had a strong showing. This competitive atmosphere helped opponents raise awareness of Chávez’s undemocratic attempts to consolidate power. Although he won the election, some of Chávez’s key military advisors deserted him during the campaign. In June, a ceremony was held for 93 retiring officers who were to receive the…
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A “Wall of Vets” Protects Free Expression in Portland
After observing federal agents escalate conflict against Christopher David, a Navy veteran, during the 2020 protests against police brutality and systemic racism, a group of veterans organized through Facebook and other community groups to create the “Wall of Vets.” Building on the legacy of human protective walls, the “wall of vets” was created to protect…
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US Military Leaders Affirm Their Commitment to Democracy
Following the January 6th attack, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a politically appointed body comprised of the top eight military officials in the country, published an unprecedented letter to the joint forces. The letter stated plainly that the events of January 6th were an assault on American democracy and emphasized how the US military will…
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Ukrainian Veterans Save Lives Through Quiet Diplomacy
During the “Orange Revolution” in Ukraine, a network of veterans organized by former General Volodymyr Antonets played a crucial role in preventing a violent crackdown against the nonviolent occupation of Independence Square in Kyiv by state security forces. After being pushed out of his position, General Antonets recruited volunteers from among his retired colleagues to…
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Sikh Langars Feed Protests for Farmers’ Rights
The pinnacle of the Indian Farmers’ Protests was a mass nonviolent blockade of the four main highways going into New Delhi, India’s capital, by hundreds of thousands of farmers, which lasted until the government caved to protesters demands a year later. The endurance of the Delhi protest camps hinged on the consistent provision of meals,…
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Hungarian Evangelicals Resist Democratic Backsliding
One key actor organizing against democratic backsliding in Hungary is Pastor Gábor Iványi of the Hungarian Evangelical Fellowship (HEF). HEF’s primary impact has been raising awareness about the state of Hungary’s democracy; they have involved the courts, published an “Advent Statement” which responded to Orbán’s claim that Hungary was being governed in accordance with “Christian…
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Polish Bishops Refuse to Support Authoritarianism
While Christianity played a key role in the rise of authoritarianism in Poland, many bishops leveraged their positionality and religious rhetoric to oppose the Law and Justice party’s (PiS) more overtly anti-democratic efforts. For example, bishops used Christian teachings to highlight contradictions between PiS’s policies and religious values and resisted attempts to utilize Christian imagery…
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Activating Faith: The Southern Christian Leadership Conference Fights for Freedom
Following the success of the Montgomery bus boycotts, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was established to coordinate and support nonviolent direct action. The initial concept of leveraging Black churches’ influential networks grew into a wider strategy of leveraging the collective impact of any faith community to fight segregation and advocate for voting rights. Relying…
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Southern Baptist Leaders Condemn the January 6th Insurrection
The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) has struggled with responding to attacks on American democracy. The internal denominational culture of the SBC conditioned the rise of Christian nationalism among its members, which was on prominent display during the January 6th attack on the US Capitol. However, there is growing momentum within the SBC and other conservative…
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Latter-Day Saints Speak Out to Protect Democracy
In the lead-up to President Biden’s inauguration, conflicting views of democracy within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints emerged, reflecting existing challenges within the Church and its history of distrust towards the US government. Some church members took part in January 6th and Utah Senator Mike Lee enthusiastically supported President Trump’s attempt to…
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Going Pro (Bono): Lawyers Provide Support Against the Muslim Ban
Amongst the wide array of concerned Americans protesting the Trump administration’s “muslim ban” were hundreds of lawyers who gathered in airports across the nation, conducting legal research and writing motions to file at court. After the immediate response, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and partner organizations filed a series of lawsuits to challenge these…
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“Ask your Doctor if Voting is Right for You!” American Doctors Speak Out on Voting
After the American Medical Association (AMA) identified voting as a social determinant of health, doctors have been making voter engagement a part of whole-person health care, helping nearly 50,000 Americans initiate their voter registration or request a ballot in 2020. The AMA is also helping patients to understand that social determinants of health—like affordable housing,…
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Brazilian Doctors Strike for Healthcare Reform and Democracy
Brazil’s doctors first began organizing large-scale resistance to the military regime over the low wages, poor working conditions, and mismanagement of the health sector by the military dictatorship. Capitalizing on a growing desire to liberalize in civil society, the doctors organized protests which quickly spread, further empowering the reformist doctors to seek out positions in…
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Lawyers in Pakistan March Against a Military Dictator
Pakistan’s Lawyers’ Movement offers a model of unity in response to democratic decline; they united around a grievance (autocracy and its threat to judicial autonomy) and strategy (peaceful protests), although its leaders and members disagreed on economic, religious, and foreign policies. The movement also made strategic use of existing legal association structures and international connections.…
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US Lawyers Use Litigation Against Assaults on Democracy
In the aftermath of the 2020 election, various groups within the legal profession organized to make it tougher for lawyers to use the legal system to overturn elections. The 65 Project, for example, is targeting 111 lawyers involved in advancing the big lie with ethics complaints, and is now campaigning to change the Bar rules…
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Polish Judges Resist Attacks on the Rule of Law
A key domain of Poland’s backsliding, which began in 2015, was the judiciary. In response, Polish judges have taken a multipronged approach to public activism. First, judges have drafted legal opinions about the anti-democratic reforms and focused on the EU legal system. Second, judges have encouraged public mobilization by disseminating educational videos, calling for mass…
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Indian Farmers’ Unions Block Roads to Bolster Democracy
In response to the anti-democratic passage of the Farm Bills in India, farm unions across various regions coordinated a coalition of 32 farm unions who came together in a nonviolent movement demanding the bills’ repeal. The first campaign focused on disrupting daily transit via sit-ins and nonviolent occupations. Then, to put pressure on the national…
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American Unions Mobilize Poll Workers
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, for the 2020 election poll workers were scarce, in person voting was challenging and unfeasible in some jurisdictions, and typical “get out the vote” campaigns were stymied by social distancing practices. Recognizing the threat to election systems, unions stepped up to protect democracy poll worker shortages using their status as…
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Unions Join Unlikely Allies to Defend American Elections
On Election Day 2020, The AFL-CIO and US Chamber of Commerce, amongst other partners, released a statement calling for the respect of election results and the peaceful transfer of power. The notable coalition of union and business made a statement, and was a result of significant behind-the-scenes work in preparation for election day.
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