The Laurence and Lynne Brown Democracy Medal is an initiative of the McCourtney Institute for Democracy at Pennsylvania State University. It annually recognizes outstanding individuals, groups, and organizations that produce exceptional innovations to further democracy in the United States or around the world.

In this book, Albert W. Dzur argues that some of the most innovative and important work in democracy is taking place face-to-face and is being led by professionals who bring those involved into the decision making process. These "democratic professionals" create a culture that leads to better decisions and overcomes what he calls "civic lethargy." He focuses on how this democratic professionalism manifests itself in the operation of a wide range of public institutions, including schools and local government, as well as in the reform of our criminal justice system, from juries to prisons.

Albert Dzur is professor of political science and philosophy at Bowling Green State University, a research fellow at the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research at the University of Edinburgh, and an associate at the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at Canberra University (Australia). He is the author of Democratic Professionalism: Citizen Participation and the Reconstruction of Professional Ethics, Identity, and Practice and Punishment, Participatory Democracy, and the Jury.