Editors’ note: A couple weeks ago, Scott Warren wrote for Democracy Without Exception about how efforts to build a big tent coalition in the United States are falling short. Julia Roig, the Founder & Chief Network Weaver of the Horizons Project, has a different view, which she shares below.
There is significant interest in the concept of “big-tent” organizing within the pro-democracy ecosystem in the United States right now, an idea that is finally gaining traction under the strain of the current administration’s assault on the rule of law and democratic institutions and norms. The fact that we need a big tent seems to be clear to many, but how to go about constructing it and who falls within it seems to be less clear. The recent Democracy Without Exception article decrying that “The Big-Tent Strategy Isn’t Working” is one critique that includes some great lessons from other countries and reminds us of the need for cross-ideological, future-oriented organizing. But the article makes some assumptions about the American conception of the big tent “in its current formation” that doesn’t ring true with my experience as the Chief Network Weaver at the Horizons Project.
Imperfect Metaphors and Distinct Theories of Change
I’m the first person to acknowledge that the “big tent” is an imperfect metaphor for what’s needed within the pro-democracy ecosystem. At the Horizons Project, we often refer instead to a music festival of many tents to express the idea that there is not just one tent that will fit everyone. When we asked a diverse group at a recent convening to help us come up with an even better metaphor, the answers included a beautiful tapestry of potlucks and gardens and sports teams and boisterous neighborhood street blocks.
The point of this exercise was to surface the fact that the pro-democracy ecosystem includes many different approaches and a diversity of perspectives and constituencies that are coming together to achieve a shared goal. In fact, at Horizons we don’t refer to the big tent as a “coalition” because the way Americans need to come together is very different from the cross-sector policy coalitions of the past. We are not seeking alignment on specific policy goals, but are working towards a high-order democratic goal: agreement to work together on core issues such as free and fair elections, respect for due process and basic civil liberties, and constraints on executive abuses of power.
Determining that shared goal, or north star, is essential to understand whether “the big tent is working.” I have found that there are many implicit theories of change behind what people refer to as a big tent that are helpful to make more explicit. At Horizons, we are convening and facilitating a broad swath of national networks and organizations under the framework of the Pillars of Support, which are:
“the groups and institutions that maintain a social or political system. They are the avenues through which power flows up from the people to political leaders. We are all embedded in various pillars of support, from the businesses where we work to the faith communities where we worship. And that embeddedness gives every one of us influence over our larger political system.”
Research shows that when loyalty shifts and defections away from the authoritarian project occur within these pillars, and the pillars become unreliable sources of power for repressive governments, the probability of stopping authoritarian consolidation increases significantly.
Accordingly, the groups that Horizons has been convening and facilitating, which we call “big tent,” represent national networks of key pillars: businesses, unions, professional associations, faith communities, veteran’s groups, arts & culture workers, and civic base-building organizations. We carefully cultivate and naturally embed ideological diversity within each of these pillars. We do not necessarily define target constituencies only by who they voted for (or plan to), but rather by their often overlapping membership and influence within these various pillars.
The portion of the big tent we convene comes together for the goal of improving democracy by collaborating across pillars—or said more concretely, building collective power and influence to withdraw public consent to overreaching government actions that disrupt ordinary civic life. This is more than thinking about elections and partisan policy agendas,and reminds us that the pro-democracy movement must move conversations from politics and acts of individual politicians to shared commitments and on-the-ground practices. We have spent a lot of time developing a shared understanding of the threats and historic through-lines of the current authoritarian system consolidating power—beyond any one leader—and delving into the distinct lived experiences and priorities within each pillar.
For us, there are no litmus tests, but rather a very low bar of entry into the big tent. The baseline question is whether partners feel that a cross-pillar formation is needed at this moment and would be additive to their own organizing goals. The answer has been a resounding “yes” from the wide range of actors involved in the big tent, who have a deepening appreciation for the collective power that accumulates when diverse pillars organize together. Initially, the group has stayed small enough to allow for deep relationship-building across pillars.
Block, Bridge, Build—But Strategic Choices are Necessary
One key to success for a diverse formation like a big tent is incorporating the many entry points to working for democracy. Horizons employs a Block-Bridge-Build approach to our organizing that allows for a range of tactics and tailored engagement strategies for different audiences. We believe that we need to integrate the efforts of people working to block the current threats to democracy (including those that deny equal rights and protection under the law), bridge amongst differences of many kinds, and imagine and build together the societal structures and new systems of governance that will make up a multi-racial, pluralistic, inclusive democracy. (We do not shy away from adjectives that may code “left” in our description of democracy, believing that we must engage in the critical conversations about race and class as essential for any successful big tent).
I agree with the call in the recent article for a “positive, appealing vision” that will animate the largest number of people, bridging across ideological lines to build our shared future. But we also need to support people who are in more of a block posture. While not all groups in the big tent may join a protest, the larger group is collectively committed to disrupting complacency and shining a light on the ways the authoritarian playbook is being implemented, including brazen executive overreach, scapegoating, and daily human rights abuses (which can be re-framed as calling out expanded government power, defending constitutional rights, and promoting freedom).
There is no confusion of whether we are debating policy choices, as the article warns against. Rather, we are together in the fight for humane immigrant rights and enforcement, election integrity, and free speech—and committed to modelling the democracy we want in how we are in relationship with each other along the way. Being part of a big tent should not change how someone speaks; it should strengthen their ability to communicate authentically with the audiences they know best. We can use different language, emphasize different values, and still work toward the same democratic purpose. Being in a big tent encourages collaboration without conformity.
The power of the breadth of groups under the big tent is both in making strategic choices together, and allowing for some to “opt out” of actions, especially as those actions increasingly include disruptive tactics and other strategies of non-cooperation. We must play an inside and outside game, using both engagement of key pillars and pressure campaigns to exact a political and economic cost for leaders who erode democracy, or turn a blind eye to authoritarian overreach. No one is considered irredeemable within these strategies. Being together in a big tent helps all of us work with our vastly different constituencies to help discern what is happening, show how to get involved and inspire each other for what is possible when people of all stripes and creeds stand up together. Faith leaders hold vigils at detention centers; veterans remind the National Guard and our communities about their commitment to the Constitution; unions and businesses unite to call for a safe work environment for their employees and customers; artists show the absurdity of peaceful protests being characterized as violent mobs; lawyers litigate executive overreach or provide legal services for civil society under threat—all of this adds up to the big tent in action.
The big tent may be a work in progress, but I don’t think it’s fair to say that it is not working. What Horizons has been helping to facilitate is just one of many configurations emerging across the pro-democracy landscape. We are inspired by the ways these cross-sectoral, cross-ideological groups are organizing, and it’s incumbent on these networks of networks to take best advantage of our collective assets and connections. Together, the many groups under the big tent form the potluck/garden/music festival for Team Democracy. Relational infrastructure takes time to grow—now is the time to continue encouraging one another to strengthen solidarity and cultivate courage across pillars, ideologies, and geographies.
Julia Roig is the Founder & Chief Network Weaver of the Horizons Project and has more than 30 years of experience working for democratic change and conflict transformation around the world. Throughout her career she has been called upon to translate between theory and practice, while seeding new approaches, organizing principles, and mindset shifts for social change. After serving for 14 years as President and CEO of PartnersGlobal, in 2022 Julia launched the Horizons Project to focus on the intersection of peacebuilding, social justice, and democracy in the United States.
 | A guest post by
|