The Civic Discourse Project

About The Civic Discourse Project

We believe that productive political conversation is possible—but only when participants share a common understanding of the words they use.

The Problem

Political debates often generate more heat than light. Two people can argue for hours about whether someone is a "socialist" or whether a policy is "liberal"—without ever realizing they're using completely different definitions of those terms.

These contested terms function like false cognates across languages: they sound the same, but mean different things depending on who's speaking. The result is confusion, frustration, and the illusion of disagreement where common ground might actually exist.

Our Approach

The Civic Discourse Project provides a shared reference for contested political terms. Rather than declaring one definition "correct," we document how terms are actually used across different contexts:

• Technical — The academic or textbook definition
• Common — How the term is typically used in mainstream discourse
• Expansive — The broadest serious usage of the term
• Polemical-Left / Polemical-Right — How the term is deployed rhetorically by each side

By making these different usages explicit, we enable participants to clarify which definition they're using—and to recognize when they're talking past each other.

How to Participate

The CDP is an ongoing project. We welcome contributions, corrections, and suggestions for new terms. Whether you're a political scientist, a journalist, a policy wonk, or simply someone who cares about the quality of public discourse, you can help us build this resource.

You can also create your own CDP profile—a public declaration of how you personally use contested terms—and share it in your bio or social media posts to help clarify your positions upfront.

Our Principles

We are committed to accuracy, fairness, and intellectual honesty. We do not advocate for any particular political position. Our goal is not to tell people what to think, but to help them communicate more clearly about what they already think.

We recognize that language evolves and that reasonable people may disagree about definitions. The CDP is a living document, and we update it as usage changes and as we receive feedback from our community.