Cafe Democracy

The Eagleton Institute of Politics is proud to launch its Café Democracy series as part of its 70th anniversary and the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Inspired by Revolution NJ’s Tavern Talks and the Rutgers Democracy Lab’s Talking Across Difference initiative, Café Democracy channels the spirit of early American tavern camaraderie and modern-day coffee shops. Bringing people together, the events provide a space to share ideas under a theme of discussion to consider how we can strengthen our democracy.

How it works: Participants are broken up into small groups. Each group will have a question relevant to the theme of discussion. The groups will discuss the question with one person volunteering to be the anchor who will take notes and stay at the same location. After 15 minutes of discussion, groups will move to a different question in the room, but the anchor will remain and help brief the next group on some key points from the previous discussion. At the end of the program, each group will share reflections from their experiences and anchors will provide an overview of themes throughout the different group discussions.