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DODO is committed to strengthening our democracy by drawing on experiences and knowledge from around the world.
DODO is committed to strengthening our democracy by drawing on experiences and knowledge from around the world.
To that end, we have established three programs that will lay the groundwork for our ongoing democracy programming:
The International Democracy Internship Program (IDIP)
The Democracy Advisors Program (DAP)
The Democracy Diagnostics Program (DDP)
The International Democracy Internship Program (IDIP)
The International Democracy Internship Program (IDIP)
As part of the International Democracy Internship Program (IDIP), DODO partners with international universities to offer local, Washington D.C.-based support, advice, and educational programs for students interning or engaging in short-term work experience in the greater Washington, D.C., area. IDIP emphasizes the value of international and inter-cultural exchange and learning -- and encourages participating students to explore, understand, and write-about their comparative perspectives on U.S. institutions and government. Students will regularly publish their insights on the DODO Blog.
DODO currently partners with the Jeff Bleich Centre for Democracy and Disruptive Technologies (JBC) at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia, on its Washington Internship Program (WIP). Since its founding year in 2000, WIP has sent 138 students to intern in the US Congress and DC-based think tanks, media outlets, and nonprofits. Working closely with The Fund for American Studies (TFAS), DODO provides local support, advice, educational tours, and extra curricular activities to Australian undergraduate students to complement their internships on Capitol Hill.
The Democracy Diagnostics Program (DDP)
The Democracy Diagnostics Program (DDP)
This program supports the development of the “Demognostics App,” an educational web app designed to bridge the gap between civic frustration and constructive democratic participation. Grounded in a rigorous "democracy algorithm", the app will utilize a generative AI chatbot—Dr. Dahl—to facilitate nuanced, self-reflective conversations with students and concerned citizens about their democracy. Demognostics will guides users through a structured four-step diagnostic process to move from political "symptoms" to evidence-based "prescriptions" for institutional reform. The app will empower a new generation of informed citizens to understand complex institutional trade-offs, lowering the temperature of public discourse and connecting users directly to a vetted network of democracy reform resources and organizations.
Program activities include:
Research and writing on democratic institutions institutions generally.
Developing in-house typologies and frameworks for classifying democratic institutions, complaints or "symptoms" (e.g., voter apathy, polarization), and underlying causes.
Meta-analyses of academic literature on democratic institutions to identify the observed effects of institutions .
Convening political scientists and historians to vet the findings of our research.
Building the scoring matrix that allows the app to dynamically "weigh" different institutional reforms based on a user’s expressed values.
Facilitating the training of the "Dr. Dahl" chatbot.
Collaborating with civics educators to align the app with mandatory state standards and classroom curriculum needs.
Identifying and vet non-partisan reform groups and resource providers to include in the app’s "treatment plan" referrals.
The Democracy Advisors Program (DAP)
The Democracy Advisors Program (DAP)
The DAP is a DODO initiative that creates and maintains the DODO Academic Advisory Council (DAAC). The DAAC is a diverse network of scholars from political science, public policy, history, sociology, and allied fields who provide DODO with high-level and strategic guidance on:
The scholarly treatment of electoral reforms and democratic institutions, including new developments in the literature.
The proposals and institutions that DODO should focus on in the coming quarters.
In addition to providing guidance, DAAC members may volunteer to:
Review DODO articles, guides, or digests about particular proposals and institutions.
Contribute to op-eds, blogs, and other public-facing media on behalf of DODO.
Serve as a pool of trusted experts that DODO makes available to journalists for comment on reform issues.
Participate in or help organize DODO events, including informing and advising reform advocates and legislators.
Assist with requests for technical assistance.
Mentor other DAAC members and foster a community among DAAC members and scholars of democratic institutions more broadly.
The DAP will support the academic community and DAAC by:
Recruiting members and forging a sense of community among democracy-oriented researchers.
Organizing events, conferences, and other meetings.
Developing and distributing a newsletter or other publication highlighting the latest research and developments in the many disciplines studying democratic institutions.
Encouraging scholars at all stages of their careers to share their work with others in and out of academia.
Ensuring that the DAAC has at least 10 members and meets no less than once a quarter.
Providing a DODO representative to each meeting to help organize the meeting, take and distribute meeting minutes, answer questions about DODO operations and plans, and solicit and report feedback from DAAC members to DODO.
In the longer term, the DAP will fund grants for research on under-studied reform areas and publicize the findings of that research. These grants will be awarded as part of a competitive process and will be open to applicants outside the DAAC.
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