If American democracy is a house, the floors are creaky and the roof is close to caving in. But it doesn’t have to be this way. 

Matthew and Jack sit down with Danielle Allen, who wants the United States to undergo a “democracy renovation” so that the house that the founders built responds to the needs of the present day. Allen, a political philosopher and scholar of public policy at Harvard, marries theory and practice in her work. She covers both in this conversation, touching on her theory of justice, her campaign for governor of Massachusetts, and the urgent need for democracy renovation. The path forward, in her eyes, involves reforming democratic institutions to achieve political equality, building a cross-ideological supermajority in support of constitutional democracy, and reviving the lost art of respectful political disagreement. 

Danielle Allen is the James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard and the director of the Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation. She is the author of several books, including “Justice by Means of Democracy,” “Democracy in the Time of Coronavirus,” and “Cuz: The Life and Times of Michael A.” She is also the founder and president of the nonprofit Partners in Democracy and a Washington Post contributing columnist.