DEMOCRATIC GUBERNATORIAL candidate Danielle Allen unveiled a democracy agenda on Wednesday, outlining a host of initiatives to encourage greater voter participation and civic involvement and reduce the influence of money in politics.
Some of the proposals are part of the current debate on Beacon Hill — same-day voter registration, the establishment of Indigenous People’s Day as a state holiday, the creation of a new state flag, and allowing communities to embrace ranked-choice voting and a lower voting age without state approval.
Others are more novel. Allen would make state resources available for conflict resolution at the local level and for local school committees and other boards to poll residents to learn where they stand on issues. She would also establish “a universal expectation of service for all young people,” with a particular focus on dealing with climate change and reporting on state and local issues. Aides said the service initiative would be voluntary.
She also wants to bolster the state’s information ecosystem to lessen the influence of social media. She said government can do much more to increase transparency and, as governor, promises to have the office comply with the Public Records Law. Currently, the governor complies at his discretion.
Allen would also invest in rebuilding local journalism by offering federal or state tax credits to those who donate to nonprofit local news outlets. She said she would encourage news outlets to collaborate on back-office functions and would push for a tax at the state and/of federal level on social media digital advertising revenue to support her local news investments.
To lessen the role of money in politics, Allen said she would pursue passage of legislation at the state level requiring a majority of shareholders to approve any “electioneering expenditures” by a corporation. At the federal level, she backs passage of an amendment to the Constitution that would roll back the Supreme Court decision in Citizens United and limit election expenditures by corporations.
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Editor, CommonWealth
About Bruce Mohl
Bruce Mohl is the editor of CommonWealth magazine. Bruce came to CommonWealth from the Boston Globe, where he spent nearly 30 years in a wide variety of positions covering business and politics. He covered the Massachusetts State House and served as the Globe’s State House bureau chief in the late 1980s. He also reported for the Globe’s Spotlight Team, winning a Loeb award in 1992 for coverage of conflicts of interest in the state’s pension system. He served as the Globe’s political editor in 1994 and went on to cover consumer issues for the newspaper. At CommonWealth, Bruce helped launch the magazine’s website and has written about a wide range of issues with a special focus on politics, tax policy, energy, and gambling. Bruce is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He lives in Dorchester.
About Bruce Mohl
Bruce Mohl is the editor of CommonWealth magazine. Bruce came to CommonWealth from the Boston Globe, where he spent nearly 30 years in a wide variety of positions covering business and politics. He covered the Massachusetts State House and served as the Globe’s State House bureau chief in the late 1980s. He also reported for the Globe’s Spotlight Team, winning a Loeb award in 1992 for coverage of conflicts of interest in the state’s pension system. He served as the Globe’s political editor in 1994 and went on to cover consumer issues for the newspaper. At CommonWealth, Bruce helped launch the magazine’s website and has written about a wide range of issues with a special focus on politics, tax policy, energy, and gambling. Bruce is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He lives in Dorchester.
Allen is on leave from Harvard University, where she teaches and is a scholar of Athenian democracy. She also has played a role in fostering civic engagement nationally by co-chairing a Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship under the umbrella of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The commission issued its report, entitled
Our Common Purpose, in 2020.
In a statement, Allen said the state needs to return to the basics if democracy is going to work. “This agenda delivers a strategy to defeat creeping authoritarianism, alienation, and exhaustion by building a compelling people-powered alternative — a green and healthy next-generation democracy that genuinely works for everyone,” she said.
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