Jill Long Thompson: Bipartisanship is Essential to Democracy

I had the privilege and pleasure of participating in the Women’s Campaign Institute hosted by Advancing Voices of Women (AVOW) again this year. AVOW is truly making a positive difference and contributing to the greater good. It is an organization that not only provides valuable information and support to women dedicated to public service, it also advances respect and civility. These are principles that are very important to the democratic process. And it promotes bipartisanship, which is essential to democracy.

It is my belief that bipartisanship is a necessary ingredient for the process of developing, adopting, and executing public policy that effectively addresses the challenges we face. We will be our strongest as a country only when our elected officials listen to and incorporate the input of all, even those with whom they disagree. Why do I believe bipartisanship is essential? When we work with those who have different experiences and opinions than our own, we are more likely to understand the complexity of our challenges. And group decision-making can lead to better outcomes.

Research findings show that legislators who work with their colleagues across the aisle are more successful and effective than those who are partisan. Working with fellow legislators who are members of the other party leads to greater collaboration and cooperation, which leads to the passage of legislation.

Bipartisanship can also lead to better policy making. When we work with people who hold opinions different from our own, we often find that differences of opinion can help us better understand the complexity of our challenges. The better we understand a challenge, the more likely we are to understand how to address the challenge. Group decision-making can lead us to better outcomes.

In fact, research shows that diversity improves performance, including the quality of decision-making. In a 2015 McKinsey Report on 366 companies, it was found that “those in the top quartile for ethnic and racial diversity in management were 35% more likely to have financial returns above the industry mean, and those in the top quartile for gender diversity were 15% more likely to have returns above the industry mean.” Bringing together people of different backgrounds and experiences, and then incorporating their input, makes us stronger.

By design, democracy is a team effort. The late J. Roland Pennock, a prominent political scientist, defined democracy as: “government by the people, where liberty, equality and fraternity are secured to the greatest possible degree and in which human capacities are developed to the utmost, by means including free and full discussion of common problems and interests.” For democracy to succeed, we must work together.

Democracy is a form of government that recognizes we all have something to contribute to the governing process, as well as a right to participate in the process. It is government “by the people,” not “by the person,” and none of us should expect to have the power of a dictator or an autocrat. It is a shared experience and responsibility, and it is undemocratic to insist that “my way is the right way, and no other way will do.”

None of us gets our own individual representative, senator, or president. We share public officials with the rest of the population, and none of us should expect or demand that an elected official’s political beliefs must be perfectly aligned with our own individual beliefs. Reasonableness, inclusivity, and respect for others are defining components of successful democratic governance.

We should all approach self-governance as a bipartisan endeavor that requires us to work with everyone to find solutions. It is not just effective, it is patriotic. Cooperation, collaboration, and compromise lead to better public policy decisions and they are essential to the democratic process. Embracing bipartisanship is good for democracy and our country.

Jill Long Thompson is a former Member of Congress who represented northeastern in the U.S. House. She also served as an Under Secretary at the United States Department of Agriculture and as Board Chair and C.E.O. of the Farm Credit Administration. She is the author of The Character of American Democracy: Preserving Our Past, Protecting Our Future (Indiana University Press, 2020) and she produced Across the Aisle: Why Bipartisanship Works for America (Indiana University Press 2024).