Democracy Beyond Elections: Citizens’ Assemblies and Institutional Reform (18t Sept,2025)

https://www.law.columbia.edu/events/democracy-beyond-elections-assemblie...

Alongside leading democracy scholars and changemakers, we’ll look at what worked, what didn’t, and how today’s efforts at every level of government are reshaping the movement for a more inclusive and responsive democracy. Speakers: -Jenny Mansbridge, Adams Professor of Political Leadership and Democratic Values Emerita, Harvard Kennedy School -Matt Leighninger, Director, Center for Democracy Innovation, National Civic League Moderator: -Marjan Ehsassi, Executive Director of FIDE - North America This event is part of an ongoing series in collaboration with New America and FIDE - North America exploring the opportunities and challenges of using citizens’ assemblies in the United States. These virtual discussions bring together leading researchers and practitioners to offer valuable insights for students, civic leaders, and anyone interested in the future of democratic innovation.

Speakers

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  Jenny Mansbridge

  Charles F. Adams Professor of Political Leadership and Democratic Values Emerita, Harvard Kennedy School

  Jenny Mansbridge is the author of the award-winning books Beyond Adversary Democracy, an empirical and normative study of face-to-face democracy, and Why We Lost the ERA, a study of anti-deliberative dynamics in social movements based on organizing for an Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. She is also editor or coeditor of the volumes Beyond Self-Interest, Feminism, Oppositional Consciousness, Deliberative Systems, and Negotiating Agreement in Politics. She was President of the American Political Science Association (APSA) in 2012-13. She is also the recipient of the international Johan Skytte Prize (2018), the foremost prize in the field of political science, as well as the APSA’s Lippincott, Madison, Schuck, and Kammerer awards and the International Political Science Association’s Deutsch Award. Her current work includes studies of representation, democratic deliberation, everyday activism, and the public understanding of free-rider problems. 

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  Matt Leighninger

  Director, Center for Democracy Innovation, National Civic League

  Matt Leighninger directs the Center for Democracy Innovation at the National Civic League. He leads the Center’s work in strengthening democratic infrastructure, organizing national engagement efforts, and measuring the quality of engagement and democracy. Matt has been one of the central figures in democracy innovation over the last twenty years. As a network-builder, convener, author, commentator, researcher, and practitioner, he has helped catalyze and connect the key developments in the recent evolution of democracy. As a result of these varied experiences and roles, Matt is able to articulate a systemic analysis of citizenship – and able to help people create more collaborative, participatory forms of democracy, at a time when they are desperately needed.

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  Marjan Ehsassi

  Executive Director, Federation for Innovation in Democracy - North America

  Marjan Ehsassi is a movement builder, strategic policy advisor, researcher and practitioner. She is a fierce believer in citizen-centric, inclusive, responsive and impactful government-led engagement that provide citizens with consequential voice in policy reform. Marjan is a Berggruen Institute Future of Democracy Fellow, an IDEA Senior Fellow, a Senior Associate at MASS LBP, and Strategic Program Director of the Democratic Action Fund. She is on the steering committee of Global Innovations and Democracy (GID) and serves on several boards including Healthy Democracy, the American Friends Service Committee, Apolitical Academy and the Local Policy Lab. She was one of four guarantors selected to the Collège des Garants of the French Citizens’ Convention on the End of Life (Convention Citoyenne sur la Fin de Vie) (2022-2023) and on the Oversight Committee of G1000’s We Need To Talk Citizens’ Panel (2022-2023).