In her dissent to the Supreme Court's 5-4 ruling Tuesday gutting the core of the Voting Rights Act, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg evoked the long history of persistent tactics that have been used to prevent minorities in the United States from voting.
"Early attempts to cope with this vile infection resembled battling the Hydra," she wrote. "Whenever one form of voting discrimination was identified and prohibited, others sprang up in its place."'via Blog this'
Participate in creating the conference program! Review, like, & comment on the proposals we've received. Provide your feedback to the Program Committee for the sessions or IAP2 Talks you like best.
... the need to understand the role of emerging social technologies on our ever-shrinking global stage has never been more immediate.
The conferences provide a forum to introduce and examine topics such as economics, politics and religion, and serve to promote peaceful relations by encouraging awareness and appreciation of cross-cultural diversity.
CommunityMatters helps cities and towns steward change by fostering what we call “civic infrastructure.” Civic infrastructure consists of the opportunities, activities and arenas, both online and face-to-face, that allow people to connect with each other, solve problems, make decisions and celebrate community. There is no prescription for what strong civic infrastructure looks like – there is no silver bullet. Instead, we offer a diverse set of tools and resources that communities can adapt to best serve their local culture.
The Knight News Challenge Open Government program has announced 8 winning projects that will receive a total of $3.2 million dollars in funding. The projects are all focused on some aspect of changing the way people and governments interact.
The Citizens’ Civility Symposium will take place in DC on Monday, July 22nd and Tuesday, July 23rd, and members of the NCDD are encouraged to attend!
The symposium is a bi-partisan gathering of national and community leaders examining the importance, challenges, and opportunities for practicing civility in the current culture of partisanship and polarization. Come learn about the civility landscape, hear from experts and practitioners in the civility movement, and listen to past and present members of Congress discuss civility on Capitol Hill.
The U.S. now has a campaign finance system where a tiny slice of individuals – 31,385 people, not even enough to fill half of a professional football stadium – collectively account for more than a quarter of all individual contributions (that we can trace), even though they represent just one in ten thousand Americans. Every single member of Congress elected in 2012 received a contribution from this group of individuals, and the vast majority of those elected (84 percent) received more money from the "1% of the 1%" than they did from all small donations (under $200).
A tiny sliver of Americans who can afford to give tens of thousands of dollars in a single election cycle have become the gatekeepers of public office in America. Through the growing congressional dependence on their contributions, they increasingly set the boundaries and limits of American political discourse – who can run for office, what their priorities should be and even what can be said in public. And in an era of unlimited campaign contributions, the power of the 1% of the 1% only stands to grow with each passing year.
The reports summarize the perspectives of 1,400 public officials and leaders of civic organizations on the state of public participation in local government decision making in California.
Each day, between Monday and Friday, the president will answer one question forwarded to him by DoSomething. His response will be sent out to everyone who participates in the campaign.
The U.S. Constitution does not force every state to elect congressional representatives from single-seat districts; states are free to elect them how they choose, subject to federal regulation. That means that only statutory and state law changes would be needed to adopt an American version of the Irish system for congressional and state legislative elections.
The report delves into trends among four specific generational groups [in the workplace]- Millenials, Generation X (Gen X’ers), Boomers, and Traditionalists. Each generation, shaped by significant world events and cultural trends, exhibits distinct differences when it comes to ethics. According to the study, certain age groups are more “at risk” than others when it comes to the four key measures of ethical performance- pressure to compromise standards, misconduct, reporting, and retaliation.
"Justice at Risk: An Empirical Analysis of Campaign Contributions and Judicial Decisions" by Joanna Shepherd, Professor of Law, Emory University School of Law report commissioned by ACS), published June 11, 2013.
Enter iLegislate -- a new iPad app from Granicus -- to streamline engagement. Through powerful civic engagement dashboards and integration with Granicus’ Citizen Participation Suite, government leaders can now connect with regular citizens.
