Practicing Democracy: How Political Arrangements Promote Equal Citizenship . . . or Not

Abstract

With the 2008 political season starting to heat up, The Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation and Visiting Fellow Prof. Kay Schlozman of Boston College took a look at the ways in which political arrangement impact citizenship in an April 27 workshop, "Practicing Democracy: How Political Arrangements Promote Equal Citizenship...or Not." The daylong workshop examined four key areas of political arrangements: political money and campaign finance; citizenship and enfranchisement; representing groups; and ballot integrity and prevention of electoral corruption. Experts from the Kennedy School of Government and across the county discussed American democratic practices in the context of political arrangements in other democracies-both long-established ones and, where appropriate, emerging ones. "Political arrangements can have consequences for equal citizenship in various ways," Schlozman explained; "for example, by controlling who is considered a citizen or which citizens have the right to participate fully in governing, or by facilitating or inhibiting the conversion of market resources into political influence."