Future Hindsight

Since 1957, BGA investigations have uncovered corruption and unfair practices throughout Chicago and the state of Illinois. A recent investigation of police shootings in pr…

Democracy Works remedies some of the most pervasive and mundane reasons we don’t vote. TurboVote is a tool that enables online voter registration, sends out election day remi…

Most Americans take for granted that our elections will be free and fair. However, this would not be the case without the rigorous efforts of dedicated non-profits, citizens,…

Many Americans are unsure of how their government works. Civic education is the manual for democracy, and Civics 101 offers it in the form of a popular podcast. Civic learning…

Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor founded iCivics in 2009 because she believed that the practice of democracy must be taught and learned anew by each generation. …

In our representative democracy, every citizen of the United States is ultimately a part of the government. One of our civic responsibilities is to be informed about how our ele…

Creating a stronger community and society comes through a continuous commitment to civic engagement. Passion about certain issues can motivate and sustain a lifetime habit …

One of the most important factors in a healthy democracy is the sense of agency. When citizens in a democracy feel they have some agency over their lives, whether it is economic, socia…

There are a multitude of ways to become an engaged citizen. Often people think of civic engagement as an overwhelming and high-level concept. In reality, civic engagemen…

Since the 2016 election, it has become increasingly imperative that we participate in our democracy as citizens. There are many ways to be civically engaged beyond voting and running for office, from…

When American democracy was conceived, the US was comprised of 13 states on the Eastern Seaboard, with a population of just over 2.5 million. The 18th and 19th century version of our…

The Fourth amendment protects people from unlawful searches and seizures. For example, in the 1970s the Supreme Court ruled that a warrant is necessary in order to listen in on telep…

Lamontagne’s study defines tolerable economic conditions as follows: the present value of abatement costs would not exceed 3% of gross world product and cl…

There is a college completion crisis and access crisis in America: black adults are only two thirds as likely to hold college degrees as whites, and the highest achieving students …

Good health is the product of access to quality medical care and sound public health policy. Effective policies that improve health outcomes include the Earned Income Tax Credit, …

Cash bail was initially conceived as a way to incentivize the accused to come to court at their appointed court dates. As the criminal legal system expanded during the tough-on-c…

The health needs of half of our population – women – include maternal and reproductive health. Equal rights mean that women can access the health care they need. Until we ta…

It’s a disservice to our communities and our democracy when the voices of women are missing in government. Women have a right for government to reflect their needs. The ac…

Government and businesses rely on census data to provide the necessary services that make healthy and vibrant communities possible. The data reveals how many grocery …