Experience Stern | Faculty & Research

In his powerful 1776 essay “Common Sense,” Thomas Paine made a compelling case for American independence, based on the rejection of a monarchy and an embrace of government of, by, and for the people. Two hundred and fifty years later, we celebrate this vision and the unlikely staying power of a democracy that has flourished in a country with the most diverse population of any nation in history. Because we don’t share a common ethnicity, race, or religion, what binds us together as Americans is our constitutional culture, including the active civic participation of our people, part of our DNA that has helped shape and rejuvenate our democracy since its birth.

But as we celebrate the success of the American experiment, we also need to acknowledge and respond to the serious challenges we now face in sustaining this model, challenges caused by the fractious nature of our politics, the litany of harmful words and actions by our current president, and the worsening disinformation and polarization fueled by new forms of technology. Most dangerously, for the civic groups that are part of our democracy’s lifeblood, we are also seeing a rising effort to punish them simply for the views they represent. Though the roots of our democracy are strong, these are consequential threats, and we ignore them at our own peril.

Paine rightly saw that a critical determinant for the success of our new nation and the vitality of its democracy was sustained, active citizen participation in political and social affairs. He wrote that “the mutual dependence and reciprocal interest which man has upon man, and all the parts of civilized community upon each other, create that great chain of connection which holds it together. The landholder, the farmer, the manufacturer, the merchant, the tradesman, and every occupation, prospers by the aid which each receives from the other, and from the whole.”

Read the full Forbes article.
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Michael Posner is the Jerome Kohlberg Professor of Ethics and Finance, Professor of Business and Society and Director of the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights.