The foundation is strengthening its capacity to meet the needs of democracy in a changing world.
Report on the Kettering Foundation’s Global Outreach: The Year in Review—2022
This report encapsulates, in words and photographs, the efforts of the foundation in 2022 and how it endeavored to learn from and alongside the international network. It also captures how Kettering has begun to reimagine the possibilities for international work in advance of a foundationwide strategic planning process that is taking place in 2023. READ MORE
An Annual Journal of the Kettering Foundation
Connections 2022 is a deep dive into Kettering research: what we’ve done—and where we want to move in the future. The issue, edited by KF director of strategic initiatives Melinda Gilmore with KF senior associate Maura Casey, features research spearheaded by Kettering program staff and colleagues. DOWNLOAD NOW
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Core Ideas
Citizens
Democracy requires responsible citizens who can make sound decisions about their future, and can act on these decisions. Through joint learning exchanges, Kettering studies how citizens might accept their responsibility, make sound decisions about what is in the public’s interest, and join forces to act on those decisions.
Communities
Democracy requires a community, or a society of citizens, that can work together. We research the way citizens face persistent problems in their communities. These problems, such as poverty, violence, and gaps in educational achievement, require citizens, communities, and institutions to work together to address them.
Institutions
Democracy requires institutions with public legitimacy that contribute to strengthening society. While institutions can affect the public’s ability to govern itself, they can also unintentionally weaken self-rule by substituting expert knowledge for public knowledge. Aligning institutional routines with citizens’ work is the central challenge.
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Kettering Foundation News
The Psychology of Polarization
Written by: Kettering Staff
In December 2022, we invited Mylien Duong, senior director of research of the Constructive Dialogue Institute (CDI), to join us. CDI uses the psychological processes that influence decision-making to create tools that can help students and professionals have conversations across differences. We asked, What roles do unconscious mental processes play in how we understand and respond to shared problems, and how can these tools help reduce the levels of political mistrust, division, and animosity?
Lessons for Journalists from Amanda Ripley’s Book, High Conflict: Part II
Written by: Kettering Staff
Earlier this year, journalist Amanda Ripley spoke to Kettering Foundation staff about her book High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out. In this second in a series of two blog posts, Jennifer Brandel, who has collaborated with Kettering on journalism experiments in streng
Lessons for Journalists from Amanda Ripley’s Book, High Conflict: Part I
Written by: Kettering Staff
Earlier this year, journalist Amanda Ripley spoke to Kettering Foundation staff about her book High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out. In this first in a series of two blog posts, Jennifer Brandel, who has collaborated with Kettering on journalism experiments in strengt
An Ongoing Struggle: Democratic Ideals and Illiberal Resistance
Written by: Kettering Staff
In November 2022, we invited Kevin C. O’Leary, director of Saving Democracy, to join us. Saving Democracy seeks to build a pro-democracy coalition from Liz Cheney conservatives to Bernie Sanders progressives and will conduct educational “deep canvassing” in selected congressional swing districts, focusing on the nation’s democratic tradition and individual liberty in a constitutional democracy. They plan to ask the business community to use the power of their political donations to reward political leaders who are committed to democracy. A research fellow at the Center for the Study of Democracy at the University of California, Irvine, O’Leary also teaches in the Political Science Department at Chapman University. He is the author of Saving Democracy: A Plan for Real Representation in America (2006) and Madison’s Sorrow: Today’s War on the Founders and America’s Liberal Ideal (2020).