Housed at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, the Empowering Democracy Initiative (EDI) aims to advance policies that support a more resilient, multiracial, and inclusive democracy. EDI's work is based on the diagnosis that rebuilding American democracy will require strengthening people power and weakening sources of anti-democratic, authoritarian power.
To support this work, EDI is bringing together academic experts together with movement and policy leaders to work on an actionable framework for designing and evaluating power-shifting policies. We are commissioning new research and writing to apply our framework to specific policy areas, such as health and labor policies, as well as across federal agency functions, such as enforcement, grantmaking, and contracting. And we are building a community of practice focused on designing power-shifting policies through virtual and in-person workshops, trainings, and partnerships.
Our founding essay lays out the diagnosis and framework behind EDI — why rebuilding democracy requires rebalancing power, and how we plan to do this work.
Read the Essay