Our Work

The Karsh Institute of Democracy prepares students for civic engagement and generates bold ideas to meet democracy’s greatest challenges. 

As a pan-university institute, we cultivate cross-disciplinary collaboration across Grounds and with external partners, driving innovation and advancing solutions that serve democracy.

The University of Virginia was founded with the mission of advancing knowledge and contributing, through education, to a healthy democracy. The Karsh Institute embodies this mission through its work across four focus areas.

Culture

Shared democratic norms and values underpin and enhance our institutions and civic practices and shape how people engage with one another in politics and public life.

Institutions

Responsive, well-functioning democratic processes and procedures uphold the rule of law, protect individual rights, and sustain public trust.

Information

Accurate, trustworthy facts, data, and news are essential for informed decision-making and meaningful civic participation, and for holding leaders accountable.

Economy

Civic and economic life are inextricably linked and shape our quality of life, capacity to participate in and influence democratic processes, and societies' approach to global challenges and opportunities.

Our work highlights the intersections of these focus areas, enabling the Karsh Institute to advance research and programming that draws on history and responds to current events, sparking engagement with the complex realities of democracy in practice.