We’re facing a systemic crisis. Climate danger. Inequality. Racial injustice. Collapsing faith in democracy. It all adds up to a crisis of our system. And systemic problems require systemic solutions.
The Democracy Collaborative is an action-oriented think-do tank seeking to build a democratic economy through political-economic system change from the bottom up.
We do this both through our on-the-ground practice – the body of work we call Community Wealth Building, which is the practical expression of our commitments – and through interventions in the ideas system and at the level of policy and strategy, organized around the larger frame of a democratic economy as our contender to become the next system of political economy.
We see the central task of the next decade as being the establishment of irreversible foundations in ideas and projects and viable policies such that a longer-term transformation of our political economy becomes an inevitable reality, flowing from core shared values and institutional design principles.
Responding to genuine hunger for a new way forward, and building on innovative thinking and practical experience with new economic institutions and approaches being developed in communities across the country and around the world, we are assembling the elements of, and pathways toward, a new political economy capable of meeting the challenges of the twenty-first century.
At TDC, we pursue two main programs of work to advance this democratic economy: Community Wealth Building and the Next System Project.
Community Wealth Building (CWB) is an economic development model that transforms local economies based on communities having direct ownership and control of their assets. It challenges the failing approaches that have been widely accepted in economic development for too long, and addresses wealth inequality at its core.
Here at TDC, we believe that CWB can democratize our economy from the ground up to build the equitable and sustainable political-economic system we all need.
Community Wealth Building
The Next System Project is our research and development laboratory for building the democratic economy. People built our current system, and what has been made can (and must!) be unmade and remade.
The Next System Project is aimed at bold thinking and action to address the systemic challenges we are facing now and in coming decades. Deep crises of economic inequality, racial injustice, failing democracy, and climate change are already upon us, and systemic problems require systemic solutions.
The Next System Project
OUR MISSION
To demonstrate in theory and in practice the principles of a democratic economy, offering a vision of what that economy can be, designing models that demonstrate how it operates, and building in coalition with others the pathways to a new reality. By making the democratic economy conceivable, visible, and practical, we open minds, ignite hope, and inspire action.
ARTICLES FOR BUILDING A DEMOCRATIC ECONOMY
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