Amid growing polarization, distrust in institutions and support for authoritarianism, universities will play a critical role in sustaining democracy – and must do more to prepare students as citizens, Johns Hopkins University President Ronald Daniels said at a Sept. 13 event launching the Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy’s Center on Global Democracy.

“The university is an indispensable institution for our democratic project,” Daniels, the author of “What Universities Owe Democracies,” said in Willard Straight Hall. “Fundamentally our opportunity is to model something better, and to know that the students who ultimately graduate from our institutions give us a shot at changing the rancorous, poisonous character of interactions we see. And hopefully this becomes a way in which we heal our country.”

Credit: Noël Heaney/Cornell University

Kicking off the daylong program, “Fostering Global Democracy: Freedom and Responsibility,” Daniels addressed students, faculty and guests including international democracy experts during a keynote discussion with Rachel Beatty Riedl, professor in the Department of Government in the College of Arts and Sciences and in the Brooks School, and the inaugural Peggy J. Koenig ’78 Director of the Brooks School Center on Global Democracy, whose mission is to advance democracy through policy research and engagement with democratic actors. Several panel discussions followed with leading policy makers and practitioners, focused on global democracy and fundamental freedoms, effective governance and the danger of insecurity.

In opening remarks, Interim President Michael I. Kotlikoff said Daniels had been prescient in highlighting universities’ role in preparing students to participate in democracy, especially during periods of deep political conflict.

“At a time when universities and the work that we do are increasingly under attack, and liberal democracy increasingly at risk in countries around the world, it’s critically important to understand the contributions of our institutions to our democratic society,” Kotlikoff said. “Not just to better appreciate those contributions, and defend our purpose before our detractors, but to better recognize the importance of this role and improve its execution.”

Ask someone to name society’s core democratic institutions, Daniels said, and they typically mention elected and accountable legislators, independent courts and a free press – but rarely universities. Yet, he said, universities are engines of social mobility, critical sites for validating claims of truth, and model democracy’s potential to accommodate and harness the benefits of pluralism.

Why then, he asked, has higher education’s standing dropped dramatically in recent years, with less than 40% of Americans across partisan lines saying universities benefit society? One reason, he said, is K-12 education’s retreat from teaching civics. With roughly one-third of students exposed to civics, he said, it’s no surprise many arrive at college – even elite universities – not knowing the full story behind the case for democracy.

“It’s got to be educated, it’s got to be taught, it’s got to be modeled,” Daniels said.

Community-engaged learning programs, Daniels said, are only part of what students need to become successful democratic citizens. He said universities should consider mandating democracy study and training. At Johns Hopkins, all undergraduates now must take at least one such course and orientation includes a Democracy Day, among other efforts to promote civic discourse and identify common ground regardless of disagreement about policies or core values.

Responding to Naina Kalra ’26 – one of five Brooks School Undergraduate Democracy Fellows who posed questions – about how to promote democracy without imposing a Western perspective, Daniels said there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. Creating enduring democracies will require humility and a willingness to learn from other countries and their international students, he said.

Kalra said she appreciated Daniels’ thoughtful interaction.

“I never really recognized how much universities play a role in promoting democracy,” she said. “I would love to promote democracy, but I didn’t know exactly how to do it. Being a part of this fellowship and hearing these impactful words has excited me to see what the new Center on Global Democracy at the Brooks School will do and what we as students can offer to that process.”

Riedl, who recently co-authored research that identified democratic backsliding in nearly 40 countries, said in closing that “democracy is always something that has to be practiced, it has to be bolstered and made real.”

While many scholars are surprised at democracies’ seeming fragility today, Daniels said, the U.S. over its history has responded when democracy was “on the ropes.”

“Every generation has a responsibility to re-earn, to reaffirm, to strengthen the democratic project,” he said. “For the folks in this room, this is your moment: The baton is clearly being handed off to you. … It’s my hope that even as we see democracy [appearing] incredibly vulnerable, that this generation will take the baton and run with it and make it better.”