Introducing Democracy Without Exception

What we’re trying to do with this thing

Welcome to Democracy Without Exception

This is a new newsletter, started by three people – Liz Ramey, Jon Temin, and Scott Warren – that grows out of our shared belief that democracy in the United States is intertwined with democracy in the rest of the world. Authoritarian leaders are mimicking and learning from each other, creating common challenges to democracy in many countries, including the US. The notion that American democracy is exceptional – that the slide toward autocracy can’t happen here – is increasingly difficult to defend.

The conversations that led to this newsletter started well before the 2024 presidential election in the US, but take on new urgency now. Our core belief is that Americans should see themselves as part of a global struggle for democracy, and that inspiration and ideas to defend democracy can be found in countries far from home. We think that the individuals and organizations in that struggle – including activists, academics, elected officials, nonprofits and philanthropies – should work toward an integrated domestic and international democracy agenda. Sometimes we call that an “intermestic” agenda, a term that people seem to either love or hate (we welcome feedback!)

We plan to use Democracy Without Exception to explore the contours of that agenda. We’ll do that primarily by featuring the views of a range of people who are, broadly speaking, in the democracy promotion and protection ecosystem, in the US and abroad. Occasionally you’ll hear from us, but mostly we’ll be behind the scenes encouraging insightful people to share their thoughts. We expect they won’t always agree, and that you won’t always agree with them. When that happens we’ll encourage exploration of those differences.

We’ll follow our contributors’ interests, while also focusing on three components of the nascent intermestic democracy agenda that we think deserve attention:

• Building the Case that Democracy Everywhere Matters: If you’re reading this, you may already think that protecting democracy at home and abroad are connected. Many people, however, do not agree with that proposition. Some on the political right think that American democracy remains exceptional, and that we can’t learn from the rest of the world. Others on the political left think Americans should focus more on problems at home, and pull back from providing support abroad. We’ll use this space to refine the case that a democracy without exception necessitates an integrated democracy agenda.

• Making Lessons Actionable: Understanding that global democratic trends impact the US, and simultaneously, that the struggle for democracy in the US is not unique, creates opportunities for Americans to learn from the rest of the world. That work is well underway, with new and more established organizations collecting and disseminating lessons and connecting activists across borders. These lessons need to get into the hands of frontline democracy activists, in a way that is useful and accessible to them – we plan to use this space to explore how to do that.

• Re-imagining Democracy Support: With US democracy assistance abroad largely in tatters, any talk of incremental reform is obsolete; it's time to more fundamentally reimagine the sector. We think that presents an opportunity to build new structures that integrate foreign and domestic democracy support, and we’ll use this space to explore how.

We hope that the people reading Democracy Without Exception can put ideas into action – they are the frontline activists, elected officials, program managers, and grantmakers (to name just a few roles) who go beyond admiring the problem and are willing to experiment to find solutions. That includes people who may not instinctively see themselves as democracy defenders. If we’ve learned anything from experience around the world, it's that many sectors of society have to be in the fight.

We plan to publish several times a month, and to keep Democracy Without Exception free of charge. We’d love your feedback on how we’re doing – feel free to use the comments function to share your thoughts.

Who are we?

There’s three of us running things behind the scenes:

Jon Temin comes from a background in international democracy promotion and protection, with a lot of that work happening across Africa. He’s worked with organizations including Freedom House, the US Institute of Peace, the Truman Center for National Policy, and the US Department of State, and is currently a Visiting Fellow with the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University.

Scott Warren has led a variety of democracy organizations and initiatives domestically and around the world. He is the founder and former CEO of Generation Citizen, a US-based civics education non-profit, and a current Fellow at the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University, where he has led efforts to bring together stakeholders from across the political spectrum to build trust in elections.

Liz Ramey is passionate about inclusive democracy and good governance in the US and around the globe, and has worked to advance these values through positions with Co-Develop, the Center for Civilians in Conflict, Indivisible, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Vital Voices Global Partnership, and others.

Thanks for joining us for this journey. We look forward to seeing where it goes.

---