In the United States and world wide, democracy is underneath menace. Anti-democratic attitudes have change into extra prevalent, partisan polarization is rising, misinformation is omnipresent, and politicians and residents typically query the integrity of elections.
With this backdrop, the MIT Department of Political Science is launching an effort to set up a Strengthening Democracy Initiative. In this Q&A, division head David Singer, the Raphael Dorman-Helen Starbuck Professor of Political Science, discusses the objectives and scope of the initiative.
Q: What is the aim of the Strengthening Democracy Initiative?
A: Well-functioning democracies require accountable representatives, correct and freely out there info, equitable citizen voice and participation, free and honest elections, and an abiding respect for democratic establishments. It is unsettling for the political science neighborhood to see increasingly more proof of democratic backsliding in Europe, Latin America, and even right here within the U.S. While we can’t single-handedly cease the erosion of democratic norms and practices, we will focus our energies on understanding and explaining the basis causes of the issue, and devising interventions to preserve the wholesome functioning of democracies.
MIT political science has a historical past of producing essential analysis on many sides of the democratic course of, together with voting conduct, election administration, info and misinformation, public opinion and political responsiveness, and lobbying. The objectives of the Strengthening Democracy Initiative are to place these numerous analysis packages underneath one umbrella, to foster synergies amongst our numerous analysis initiatives and between political science and different disciplines, and to mark MIT because the nation’s main middle for rigorous, evidence-based evaluation of democratic resiliency.
Q: What is the initiative’s analysis focus?
A: The initiative is constructed upon three analysis pillars. One pillar is election science and administration. Democracy can’t operate with out well-run elections and, simply as essential, fashionable belief in these elections. Even throughout the U.S., not to mention different nations, there may be large variation within the electoral course of: whether or not and the way folks register to vote, whether or not they vote in particular person or by mail, how polling locations are run, how votes are counted and validated, and the way the outcomes are communicated to residents.
The MIT Election Data and Science Lab is already the nation’s main middle for the gathering and evaluation of election-related information and dissemination of electoral finest practices, and it’s properly positioned to improve the dimensions and scope of its actions.
The second pillar is public opinion, a wealthy space of research that features experimental research of public responses to misinformation and analyses of presidency responsiveness to mass attitudes. Our school make use of survey and experimental strategies to research a spread of substantive areas, together with taxation and well being coverage, state and native politics, and techniques for countering political rumors within the U.S. and overseas. Faculty analysis packages type the premise for this pillar, together with longstanding collaborations such because the Political Experiments Research Lab, an annual omnibus survey wherein college students and school can take part, and frequent conferences and seminars.
The third pillar is political participation, which incorporates the affect of the felony justice system and different adverse interactions with the state on voting, the creation of citizen assemblies, and the lobbying conduct of companies on Congressional laws. Some of this analysis depends on machine studying and AI to cull and parse an infinite quantity of knowledge, giving researchers visibility into phenomena that have been beforehand troublesome to analyze. A associated analysis space on political deliberation brings collectively laptop science, AI, and the social sciences to analyze the dynamics of political discourse in on-line boards and the potential interventions that may attenuate political polarization and foster consensus.
The initiative’s versatile design will enable for new pillars to be added over time, together with worldwide and homeland safety, strengthening democracies in several areas of the world, and tackling new challenges to democratic processes that we can’t see but.
Q: Why is MIT well-suited to host this new initiative?
A: Many folks view MIT as a STEM-focused, extremely technical place. And certainly it’s, however there’s a large quantity of collaboration throughout and inside faculties at MIT — for instance, between political science and the Schwarzman College of Computing and the Sloan School of Management, and between the social science fields and the colleges of science and engineering. The Strengthening Democracy Initiative will profit from these collaborations and create new bridges between political science and different fields. It’s additionally essential to observe that this can be a nonpartisan analysis endeavor. The MIT political science division has a popularity for rigorous, data-driven approaches to the research of politics, and its place throughout the MIT ecosystem will help us to preserve a popularity as an “honest broker,” and to disseminate path-breaking, evidence-based analysis and interventions to help democracies change into extra resilient.
Q: Will the new initiative have an academic mission?
A: Of course! The division has a protracted historical past of bringing in scores of undergraduate researchers by way of MIT’s Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program. The initiative shall be structured to present these college students with alternatives to research numerous sides of the democratic course of, and for school to have a prepared pool of proficient college students to help with their initiatives. My hope is to present college students with the sources and alternatives to take a look at their very own theories by designing and implementing surveys within the U.S. and overseas, and use insights and instruments from laptop science, utilized statistics, and different disciplines to research political phenomena. As the initiative grows, I anticipate extra alternatives for college kids to collaborate with state and native officers on enhancements to election administration, and to research new puzzles associated to wholesome democracies.
Postdoctoral researchers may also play a outstanding function by advancing analysis throughout the initiative’s pillars, supervising undergraduate researchers, and dealing with a number of the administrative features of the work.
Q: This appears like a long-term endeavor. Do you anticipate this initiative to be everlasting?
A: Yes. We have already got the items in place to create a number one middle for the research of wholesome democracies (and the way to make them more healthy). But we want to construct capability, together with sources for a pool of researchers to shift from one undertaking to one other, which is able to allow synergies between initiatives and foster new ones. A everlasting initiative may also present the infrastructure for school and college students to reply swiftly to present occasions and new analysis findings — for instance, by launching a nationwide survey experiment, or accumulating new information on a side of the electoral course of, or testing the affect of a new AI know-how on political perceptions. As I like to inform our supporters, there are new challenges to wholesome democracies that weren’t on our radar 10 years in the past, and little question there shall be others 10 years from now that we’ve got not imagined. We want to be ready to do the rigorous evaluation on no matter challenges come our method. And MIT Political Science is the very best place on the earth to undertake this bold agenda in the long run.