National Civic Review

One of the Nation’s Oldest and Most Respected Journals of Civic Affairs

View All Articles from the Current Issue

• The Civic Infrastructure of Democratic Resilience at the Periphery

  Amid rising radical populism, attacks on electoral integrity, and the erosion of institutional checks and balances at the national level, a quieter story is unfolding in local governments and civic networks across the country. Years of research and interviews demonstrates that democratic resilience depends as much on the periphery—the everyday civic infrastructure of communities—as it does on the fate of central institutions.

• The Quiet Power of Participatory Democracy

  Twenty years of research into Peru’s participatory institutions shows that despite deep political instability and corruption at the national level, participatory budgeting has strengthened accountability, boosted civic engagement, and improved residents’ well-being at the local level, offering hard-won lessons for today’s civic reformers.

• De Facto Disenfranchisement: Closing the Gap between Eligibility and Turnout in Local Jails

  Hundreds of thousands of legally eligible voters sit in local jails on any given day, yet logistical hurdles and bureaucratic confusion routinely deny them their right to vote in practice. Innovations and community-led efforts across the country are demonstrating that the lack of ballot access in jails is not an inevitability, but a solvable problem.