Join Peter MacLeod, co-author of Democracy’s Second Act, in conversation with Miriam Levin, Director of Participatory Programmes at DEMOS for an engaging discussion about why frustration and polarisation are rising and how reclaiming the power of the public can lead to a more hopeful political future.
Democracy’s Second Act explores why frustration and polarisation are on the rise and how reclaiming the power of the public can lead to a more hopeful political future.
Democracy isn’t broken. It’s stuck. Around the world, people are growing angry and polarised not because they’ve stopped caring, but because democracy has stopped evolving. The result isn’t apathy; it’s a rising sense of political futility.
In Democracy’s Second Act, Peter MacLeod and Richard Johnson argue that the first act of democracy, anchored in voting rights and representative government, achieved extraordinary gains. Free elections, near-universal suffrage, and the peaceful transfer of power reshaped societies and expanded human freedom. But these achievements represent the promise of democracy, not its completion.
The book offers a hopeful, clear-eyed vision for what comes next. Drawing on groundbreaking citizens’ assemblies in Ireland, Canada, and France, as well as democratic innovations from more than a dozen countries, MacLeod and Johnson show how democracy can build on its first act by creating new institutions that tap into the talents, judgment, and capabilities of ordinary people. They make the case that the public isn’t a risk to be managed, but a powerful resource ready to be harnessed, and that the future depends on giving citizens real responsibility, not just a periodic vote.
Smart, story-driven, and deeply grounded in political theory and practice, Democracy’s Second Act is for changemakers ready to move beyond cynicism and rebuild democracy for a new era.
About the authors
Peter MacLeod
Peter MacLeod is the founder and principal of MASS LBP where for nearly two decades he has been at the forefront of democratic innovation championing a new approach to politics that gives more people a seat at the table. A trusted advisor to governments at all levels, he is one of Canada’s leading voices on democracy, active citizenship and working with the public.
Richard Johnson
Richard Johnson is a former journalist and current policy director at MASS LBP. His writing has appeared in The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, The Walrus, Reader’s Digest, This Magazine, The New Quarterly, and many others. A former Fellow in Literary Journalism at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, he was also a longtime writer for the award-winning podcast Trailblazers, with Walter Isaacson.
About the discussant
Miriam Levin
Miriam Levin is the Director of Participatory Programmes at DEMOS. She was previously Chief Executive of Engage Britain until their merger with Demos. Prior to that she was Engage Britain’s Programme Director and led their people-powered policymaking work on health and care, which knitted deliberative and participatory methods together to build policy from the grassroots up. She has also worked for the UK government as Head of Community Action, where she led the government’s first deliberative democracy programme, and was Head of Outreach at English Heritage.
