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Understanding Values, Democracy, and the Future of Health

Hosted May 2025

In this webinar, we spoke with Aditi Juneja, founder and executive director of Democracy 2076, to explore how Americans’ core values shape their engagement with democracy—and what this means for those working at the intersection of health, policy, and systems change.

A public demonstration; people are leaning against Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan offices, with picket signs. The one in the forefront is a young man wearing a wide brimmed hat holding a yellow sign with dark text that reads "Your greed makes me sick".

Understanding Values, Democracy, and the Future of Health

from Rx Foundation’s Power is a Social Determinant of Health series

Session description: How can understanding others’ alignment across these values impact the ways that we communicate information and stories to our communities in ways that illuminate problems, catalyze actions, and shape our shared future? In this installment of the Rx Foundation’s Power is a Social Determinant of Health series, Aditi Juneja, founder and executive director of Democracy 2076, offered powerful insights into how value segmentation—not just identity—can help us better understand different worldviews, political divisions, and emerging challenges for public health, information systems, and democracy itself.

Together, we explored:

  • How values inform the stories we are drawn to in media
  • What values segmentation can tell us about how and why trust and belief in systems, including health and medical systems, is changing
  • How value segmentation—not just identity—can help us better understand different worldviews, political divisions

Watch the Recording

Session Highlights

Values are stable—contexts are not.
People don’t change core values easily, but different environments and roles bring different values to the forefront. Parents might value order at bedtime; organizers might prioritize community in coalitions.
Values shape how people interpret democracy and health systems.
Democracy 2076 uses a quadrant framework based on two axes—“Me to We” (individualism vs. collectivism) and “Protect & Preserve to Strive & Create” (stability vs. innovation)—to understand how values drive perception.
The four value orientations are: Community, Order, Autonomy, Authority.
Media narratives influence political and health engagement.
Only 8% of government-related TV and film stories over the last 30 years focus on the future. This limits people’s ability, especially those who value authority—to imagine systemic change. A lack of future-facing narratives reinforces nostalgia and resistance to change.
Headshot of Dr. Lisa Fitzpatrick with a quote from the RX Foundation power session, "We must be willing to embrace solutions that respond directly to community feedback even if it sounds foreign, risky and non-academic. People want relatable messaging. This builds trusts which can increase engagement and close care gaps.
Emerging political divides cut across traditional lines.
New axes—such as “individual health sovereignty vs. collective health governance” and “education as social equalizer vs. status reinforcer”—reveal that skepticism toward health systems often stems from value conflicts, not just political identity. These divides influence how people perceive medical expertise, vaccine guidance, and public health campaigns.
Belonging must be both meaningful and accessible.
Effective identities create a sense of meaning and inclusion. They must be “thick” enough to be significant and “thin” enough to allow entry. This is critical for building coalitions that include people across value orientations without reinforcing division.

Notable Quotes

  • “Values don’t change—contexts do. You are not one value, all the time. You are different values in different roles.” – Aditi Juneja
  • “If people who value authority don’t see a problem in the current system and don’t have a future to believe in, it’s no wonder they want to return to the past.” – Aditi Juneja

Session Resources

Speakers

Aditi Juneja leads Democracy 2076, an organization focused on designing toward a healthy, inclusive democracy on the United States’ 300th birthday. She previously co-founded the Resistance Manual and has worked at the intersections of legal advocacy, disability justice, and systems change. Aditi’s work is informed by personal experience navigating the healthcare system as a person with epilepsy, and her leadership continues to push for equity, imagination, and agency across sectors.

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