From Keystone Research Center (http://www.keystoneresearch.org):
HARRISBURG – The Keystone Research Center has released a comprehensive report examining the health of democracy in Pennsylvania, “Democracy in Pennsylvania.” Almost 20 years after the release of KRC’s original “Democracy in Pennsylvania” report, this update comes at a critical time for our representative democracy. With the grassroots energy around redistricting reform to end gerrymandering over the last few months, coupled with rising concerns about voting rights and money in politics, the report examines the crisis of confidence in state government, but also lays out a number of recommendations for putting Pennsylvania on the path to a more healthy democracy.
In short, the report finds: 1.that by many measures, Pennsylvania’s democracy is not healthy, and 2. that the citizens of Pennsylvania still have the power to revitalize their democracy through campaign finance reform, redistricting reform, and changes to voting laws, among other reforms.
“Nineteen years ago, when we wrote the first version of this report, we saw many of the troubling data points about Pennsylvania’s representative democracy that we see today. However, it is very worrying to recognize that many aspects of our democracy have regressed over the last few decades. From gerrymandered legislative districts to the prevalence of money in politics to the broad lack of confidence that government is run for the benefit of the people, there is much reason for concern,” said report co-author and Keystone Research Center Executive Director Stephen Herzenberg. “But here’s the silver lining as we lay out in our report: there are simple solutions to Pennsylvania’s democracy deficit, and we’ve seen a groundswell of grass-roots citizen activism that can serve as a catalyst so that democracy of, by, and for the people does not perish from this state.”
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