The Charles F. Kettering Foundation is launching From Many, We, a Kettering blog series that will highlight the insights of thought leaders who are dedicated to the idea of inclusive democracy. Inclusive democracy recognizes the full and equal inclusion of all voices and the shared appreciation of diversity as critical components of a flourishing democracy. The series will affirm and defend traditional democratic values and institutions while emphasizing the work to be done to ensure that our reality lives up to the ideal.

From Many, We aims to distill the aspirational goals of a diverse democracy, recognize patterns of exclusion and authoritarian creep, and identify and respond to urgent democratic threats. The series draws inspiration from the United States’ motto E Pluribus Unum, translated as “From Many, One.” However, We rather than One more explicitly names the aspiration for a complex unity that welcomes and values diversity.

The series will be edited by Kettering Foundation program officer Derek W. M. Barker. Contributors will include cutting-edge scholars, democracy activists, and emerging and established thought leaders. We invite you to join us in reading, thinking, and engaging with their insights.

Derek W. M. Barker is a program officer at the Charles F. Kettering Foundation, a political theorist, and the lead editor of the foundation’s blog series From Many, We.

From Many, We is a Charles F. Kettering Foundation blog series that highlights the insights of thought leaders dedicated to the idea of inclusive democracy. Queries may be directed to fmw@kettering.org.