Harvard government professor Danielle Allen, who is weighing running for Massachusetts governor next year, joined Boston Public Radio on Tuesday, where she spoke about her vision for what she called the “re-knitting” of a deeply divided America.
Allen is an expert in democratic theory. In the course of co-chairing a 2020 report for the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, she traveled to 50 communities across the nation on a listening tour, looking to establish a clear sense democracy's future in America.
“If you spend time talking to people all over the country, lots of people are hungering to put the anger and the vitriol behind us,” she said, adding that “at the end of the day — if you’re gonna have a democracy that’s sustainable in the world broadly, you’ve actually got to keep that decision making going together.”
Tuesday's interview took place hours before the Senate impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump, which some Republicans say is divisive. Allen, expanding on her recent opinion piece for The Washington Post, called Trump’s impeachment a necessary process but said it's "only the beginning” to moving the country toward a more peaceful and unified future.
Reestablishing a broader sense of trust in government institutions, she said, will amount to a “generation’s worth of work.” Among her proposed reforms, she called for expansion of Congress, term limits for Supreme Court justices and the immediate end to the Senate filibuster.
"The legislature is the voice of the people, and we currently have a voice that cannot function, period, regardless of which side you’re on with regard to agenda items," Allen said.
Listen: American Democracy — Buy Or Sell?
Speaking to what’s ahead for U.S. institutions, Allen said she continues to believe democracy is "the best possible form of government,” in spite of the shortcomings she said have been laid bare in recent years and decades.
"I love democracy, I love the fact that there is this way of making decisions that empowers people — in principal,” Allen said. "I think a lot of us feel disempowered right now. But in principal, democracy is supposed to deliver wellbeing and flourishing that comes from empowerment."
"We don’t have an alternative but to put in the work to actually achieve its functioning again," she added.
Allen did not give a definite answer when asked about her timetable for making a decision on whether to run for governor.
"I’m definitely exploring,” she said. "I’m spending my time visiting with people, listening and learning, [and] testing whether or not what I see as our potential in Massachusetts, to knit ourselves back together, rebuild prosperity while also delivering equity at the same time — whether that resonates with other people.”
Allen said that she’s expecting her exploration to continue through the spring.
