Speaking as part of the 2024-25 Notre Dame Forum, Danielle Allen, the James Bryant Conant University Professor and director of the Allen Lab for Democracy at Harvard University, explored technology’s impact on democracy, the importance of bridging ideological divides, and the role state government plays in shaping national politics in a lecture titled Bringing Democracy Back from the Brink: A Strategic Vision and Call to Action.”

In his opening remarks, University President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., noted that for the first time in more than 20 years, the world has fewer democracies than autocracies, citing the most recent Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) report.

“Strengthening democracy will require each of us to work together and build bridges, most especially with those with whom we may disagree,” he said. “Danielle is and has been a critical voice in helping us to think about how we can navigate the way forward together.”

The theme of this year’s Notre Dame Forum is “What do we owe each other?”

A professor of political philosophy, ethics, and public policy, Allen is a renowned author and advocate. In 2020, she was awarded the Library of Congress’s Kluge Prize for “her internationally recognized scholarship in political theory and her commitment to improving democratic practice and civics education.”

“Universities are such important institutions for civil society in making space for a huge range of opinion, for debate in the job of seeking understanding, which we do together,” Allen said. “So, what’s one of the things we owe each other? It is to talk honestly and completely about what we see in the world around us. It is that frank conversation, a complete conversation, and one that is also about our core respect for the sacred human dignity of everybody else that we’re in conversation with.”

Allen described her journey to the work of “democracy renovation,” an approach she described as rooted in civic education, grounded in knowledge, and aimed at renovating institutions to be responsive and work effectively for the people.

“We are living through a time in which our society is under incredible pressure because of broad, socioeconomic changes,” Allen said, comparing current issues around inequality of income and wealth and disparities of power to those experienced during the Gilded Age of the late 19th century. “Those changes, the pressures we’re under, are also technological.”

Technology, particularly the rapid development of artificial intelligence, she said, is straining the fundamental tenets of democracy, changing the economy, driving significant unprecedented levels of migration, and disrupting the distribution of power.

How can citizens respond to that disruption?

“Our federal edifice is made out of units of states, and at the end of the day, the quality and health of our state government is, I believe, the single most important factor determining the quality and health of our national government,” Allen said.

She encouraged attendees to consider whether their state government models a healthy democracy.

“Do we have responsive representation at the state level? Do we have engaged citizens who have a good civic education, who are prepared to take responsibility, to work on problem-solving with others across lines of difference?”

Allen shared observations about the current administration and offered a list of executive branch actions citizens should watch for that signal an appropriate balance of power. Those include: the executive branch’s willingness to respect Supreme Court decisions, especially when they counteract actions taken by the executive branch; the degree to which the executive branch protects citizens’ sensitive data; and a demonstrated commitment to strengthening Congress.

Following her presentation, Allen fielded questions from the audience, moderated by Mary Gallagher, the Marilyn Keough Dean of the Keough School of Global Affairs.

Asked how students could help transform the current political landscape for the better, Allen again encouraged a deeper understanding and involvement in state and local government.

She also discussed how operating with integrity and moral character across the political spectrum starts with each individual.

“From my point of view, it makes it all the more imperative that we restore the importance of character, that each of us in our own lives, private and public, every chance we have, speak up for integrity and kindness and compassion and the refusal to treat people in a bullying fashion,” Allen said.

Allen’s talk also served as the 31st annual Hesburgh Lecture in Ethics and Public Policy, co-sponsored by the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, part of the Keough School of Global Affairs. Asher Kaufman, John M. Regan, Jr. Director of the Kroc Institute, introduced the lecture series, which honors Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., Notre Dame’s 15th president and the Institute’s founder. Allen joined a long list of thinkers, authors, and activists who have delivered the annual Hesburgh Lecture.

Watch a recording of the event here. To see future events related to the 2024-25 Notre Dame Forum, visit forum2024.nd.edu.