Cyrena Kokolis and Farbod Faraji in Nonprofit Quarterly, arguing that the answer is proportional representation:

The United States is in the midst of a polycrisis—multiple, interconnected crises that amplify each other—and at its center is a steady slide toward authoritarianism. We’re facing an imminent breakdown of civil rights, the rule of law, and the integrity of our Constitution; economic, climate, health, and military crises are accelerating in turn. Civil society, including the nonprofit sector, is rushing to respond on all these fronts, while also holding the line against a government fixated on self-enrichment, retribution, and control. Despite our efforts, these emergencies continue to compound.

The cause of our polycrisis, and our inability to find our way out, is systemic. It lies in our electoral system—the rules that translate our votes into representation, determining who wields political power and how effectively we can respond to our overlapping crises. Our electoral system was built in a different era, for a different country. It does not reliably turn what Americans want into what their government does, and it structurally advantages the authoritarianism now stifling civil society.

Leaders, organizations, and donors across the sector are looking to trade their current defensive crouch for an affirmative vision: a strategy for creating the future rather than merely surviving the present. To achieve this, civil society—those advocates, organizations, and other actors operating outside the government—must address the electoral system that keeps us trapped in this pattern. Fundamentally reforming this system could both protect us against authoritarian repression and empower us to win real progress on the causes for which we fight. Proportional representation is the transformational change that can get us there.