Institute for Democratic Engagement & Accountability

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We are the Institute for Democratic Engagement and Accountability (IDEA), dedicated to fostering meaningful conversations between citizens and elected officials to strengthen democratic governance.

08/28/2026

What does representation look like from inside a congressional office?

For Elise Britton, a 2026 IDEA Summer Democracy Fellow, part of the answer came through everyday conversations with constituents.

While working in U.S. Rep. Shontel Brown’s Washington, D.C., office, Elise listened to Ohioans who came in with questions and concerns, learned how congressional offices respond to the people they represent, and developed a deeper understanding of how advocacy and public policy connect.

She also used the summer to explore an issue that caught her attention in Washington: barriers Black women face in accessing substance-use treatment.

Looking back, Elise summed up the experience this way:

“Government is not something that happens only on Capitol Hill-it’s built through everyday conversations, grassroots organizing, and people who choose to listen, serve, and make their voices heard.”

Read more about Elise’s summer in Washington: https://democracyinstitute.osu.edu/news/what-elise-britton-learned-listening-capitol-hill

08/20/2026

🎉 A publication milestone for IDEA-affiliated scholars and collaborators

A study we previously highlighted as a working paper is now published in Public Opinion Quarterly.

An Experimental Comparison of AI-Enabled Semi-Structured Interviews and Fixed Surveys examines whether AI interviewers can help researchers understand not only what people think but why they think it.

Using a randomized experiment with 2,243 U.S. adults, the researchers found that AI-enabled interviews elicited substantially more and more detailed reasoning than traditional survey approaches.

Importantly, the additional time and effort required for the AI interviews did not meaningfully reduce participant satisfaction or completion rates.

The study also points to an important methodological challenge. The act of asking people to explain and reflect on their views can itself influence subsequent responses, with small shifts toward more polarized positions observed under certain conditions.

As AI becomes an increasingly important part of public opinion research, these findings offer important evidence about both what these tools can reveal and how they may affect what researchers are trying to measure.

🔗 Read the published article: https://doi.org/10.1093/poq/nfag063

08/18/2026

What does it look like to experience Congress from the inside?

For Ryan Mahoney, an IDEA Summer Democracy Fellow, it meant spending the summer in Rep. Emilia Sykes’ Washington, D.C., office, learning how congressional staff research legislation, work with nonpartisan resources, serve constituents, and support the legislative process.

One moment brought all of that work into focus. Ryan learned that the Congresswoman had decided to cosponsor a bill he had researched and written a memo about.

“Working in a Congressional office absolutely changed how I see the relationship between citizens and their Representatives,” Ryan said.

The fellowship also challenged him to build professional connections across Washington and gave him a new perspective on ideas he had previously studied in the classroom.

Read more about Ryan’s summer as an IDEA Democracy Fellow on our website. 👉 https://democracyinstitute.osu.edu/news/summer-inside-congressional-office

08/17/2026

Axios reports a concerning trend: congressional town halls, once a staple of the August recess, are becoming increasingly rare. Only 11 lawmakers had town halls scheduled for the rest of August, following a period marked by highly contentious public meetings.

This situation presents a genuine democratic dilemma: how can we maintain direct, meaningful interactions between constituents and elected officials when the traditional format is becoming increasingly difficult to sustain?

At IDEA, this question is at the core of our work on Deliberative Town Halls (DTHs). DTHs are not merely ordinary town halls adapted for online platforms.

Instead, they employ representative recruitment, nonpartisan information dissemination, and structured moderation to foster more substantive dialogue between citizens and their representatives.

The challenge may not lie in choosing between an auditorium and Zoom. Instead, it may be about designing more effective ways for individuals and their representatives to engage in meaningful conversations and active listening.

📰 Read Axios: Congress' disappearing town halls: https://www.axios.com/2026/08/10/house-republicans-congress-town-halls?utm_source=chatgpt.com

🔎 Learn more about IDEA's Deliberative Town Hall research: https://democracyinstitute.osu.edu/

08/11/2026

We disagree about politics. It is less obvious why.

Kurt Gray studies moral psychology, and his answer is that liberals and conservatives do not have different moral minds. We all worry about protecting people from harm. We see different people as vulnerable.

At Science Sundays next month, he explores what human nature and moral psychology tell us about that divide, and offers practical ways to have conversations across it. Close to home for us, since that is what our Deliberative Town Halls are built to do.

📅 Sunday, September 13, 3 p.m.
📍 Fawcett Event Center
Free and open to the public, with a reception to follow.

➡️ RSVP: https://osu.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bdcqytpeKixX2K2

08/10/2026

Every polling place in Ohio needs people to run it. People from our communities who sign up, get trained, and show up on Election Day.

Without enough poll workers, running a smooth, accessible election gets harder.

So don't let your county come up short. 🗳️

Tomorrow is National Poll Worker Recruitment Day. Ohio counties are recruiting now. Training is provided, and poll workers are paid for their service.

➡️ Put your name in at HelpAmericaVote.gov.

08/07/2026

📉 Partisan animosity in America has been growing for decades.

Not disagreement about policy. Dislike of the people who disagree. Very little has ever been shown to reverse it.

🏛️ In October 2022, IDEA brought together more than 1,400 Americans online with the bipartisan leadership of the House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress, a Democrat from Washington and a Republican from South Carolina, to discuss how to improve Congress.

⏱️ The conversation lasted 90 minutes. More than 85% of participants stayed beyond the first hour.

📊 The results were remarkable.

Polarization among participants dropped to a level the United States had not seen since 1993. A control group did not move, and the effect was still present two weeks later.

📈 Trust and approval of Congress as a whole increased by 10 percentage points.

The division is real.

The evidence suggests it may also be less permanent than it appears.

📖 Read more:
democracyinstitute.osu.edu/projects/connecting-congress/scmc

08/05/2026

📰 Headlines tell you what people answered.

Second Raven helps explain why they answered that way.

Second Raven explores the stories behind public opinion using AI, research, and careful analysis. Whether it's politics, democracy, AI, polling, or the latest public debates, our articles go beyond the numbers to uncover what people really think.

📚 Read about:
✔️ Public opinion
✔️ AI and society
✔️ Democracy
✔️ Political polarization
✔️ Political violence
✔️ Survey design
✔️ Current political issues

💙 Subscribe for free and never miss a new article:

https://secondraven.substack.com

Please like, share, and invite others who enjoy thoughtful, evidence-based research.

07/30/2026

Does talking an issue through with other people actually do more than working through it on your own?

It's a fair question, and an expensive one. Convening people costs money, staff time, and childcare. Some researchers have argued you could skip the room and get the same benefit by having people reflect privately.

So we tested it. Working with two sitting US senators, we recruited 402 of their constituents to work through immigration reform. Some discussed it in moderated online groups. Some went through identical material privately, walked step by step through the same tradeoffs at a deliberately slow pace. A third group simply received the materials.

Working through it privately helped. Talking it through with others helped about twice as much 📈. The biggest gains were in how people felt about the experience, whether they believed their own views had shifted, and their enthusiasm for the issue.

One result cut the other way. On a factual quiz about immigration policy, the people who worked privately scored slightly higher. 📈

Talking together did more for engagement than for recall.

The effects are real but modest, which is part of why we keep measuring them.

Read the study:
https://democracyinstitute.osu.edu/publication-and-resources/testing-benefits-public-deliberation

07/27/2026

Would you be willing to sit down with people who hold different political views and have a thoughtful conversation about an important public issue?

Many people assume most Americans would say no. Our research found something different.

We identified a large and diverse group of Americans who are willing to deliberate about difficult issues. Many have grown tired of political arguments—not because they no longer care, but because they are looking for a better way to engage.

When conversations are structured around listening, evidence, and respectful dialogue rather than winning an argument, many people are willing to take part.

That finding continues to shape how we design every Deliberative Town Hall.

Read the full study:
https://democracyinstitute.osu.edu/publication-and-resources/who-wants-deliberate-and-why

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https://democracyinstitute.osu.edu/

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