COVID-19, an epochal event, has made the case for reimagining the ownership and governance of our economies on both sides of the Atlantic more urgent than ever. An agenda to extend democratic public ownership is essential.

“In a world grappling with the consequences of widening economic inequality, cooperatives are gaining attention as an intriguing potential alternative to the established mode of global capitalism. They emphasize one defining purpose: protecting workers. […] In the north of England, the city of

A new report from Common Wealth and the Democracy Collaborative (to which the authors contributed) presents several bottom-up and top-down proposals to fundamentally change the ownership structure, values, governance, and orientation of platforms and data, and gain control over the commanding

“In a poll conducted by YouGov last year, the Democracy Collaborative found that a remarkable 55 percent of voters would strongly or somewhat support a proposal requiring companies with over 250 employees to gradually put half of their shares into a workers’ fund—far more than Sanders proposed

Digital platforms have proven indispensable to how we live, work, and play. The challenge is to liberate the democratic and enlivening potential of the platform from the logic of concentrated corporate ownership and profit maximization.

The United Kingdom town of Preston and the development cooperative Stir to Action have launched a groundbreaking community wealth building initiative to increase Black, Asian, and minority ethnic representation in the cooperative sector.

Thomas Hanna, Research Director at The Democracy Collaborative and Co-Director of the organization’s Theory, Policy, and Research Division, was quoted in an article by Pedro Gonzalez about the need to nationalize silicon valley and the historic precedent of similar forms of nationalization. “[T]he

“Voluntary initiatives in the private sector—that’s been the nature of socially responsible business and investing for 30 years,” says Marjorie Kelly, executive vice president of the Democracy Collaborative, a nonprofit research institute focused on building a fairer economy. “We are now at a pivot

Dana Brown, co-director of Theory, Research, and Policy and director of The Next System Project at The Democracy Collaborative writes: Earlier this month, India and South Africa, two of the countries hardest hit by the pandemic, formally petitioned the WTO to suspend [Trade-Related Aspects of

Proponents of a genuinely just and sustainable society like Marjorie Kelly, executive vice president of The Democracy Collaborative, have criticized the BRT statement while arguing that what’s known as the triple-bottom-line approach to business—people, planet, and prosperity—is a step in the right

We need to apply democratic ownership and control principles to intellectual property and research and development, so th2interconnected and entwined systems are used to build a more equitable, sustainable, and democratic 21st-century economy.

Rather than standing by as a wave of corporate buyouts and consolidations undermine local economies and further exacerbate wealth inequality, social impact investors could become the agents of a sweeping economic transformation anchored in broad-based employee ownership. They could turn the current

The Democracy Collaborative’s vice president Marjorie Kelly says that in the radically altered COVID-19 landscape, talk is especially cheap, and that it’s past time for the dominant corporate model to radically change. It’s also time to take dramatic action to stop the evisceration of the small

The Democracy Collaborative proposes a publicly owned pharmaceutical industry, the purpose of which would be to develop lifesaving medication for all rather than maximizing shareholder profits. Decisions that put people first would make sure medications were developed to treat rare diseases and that

Worker-owned cooperatives are increasingly taking hold in the U.S in response to extreme pressures on American workers in the current economy. A leading organization in this movement is the Democracy Collaborative, that has created a series of worker-owned coops in Cleveland, OH, called the

As some recognize, internet access in the U.S. is generally far slower and more expensive than in most other advanced countries. According to The Next System Project, a democratic collaborative, nearly 133 million Americans don’t have internet connection speeds of at least 250 megabits per second

In mid-January, the Rutgers Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing held its mid-year Kelso fellows meeting, in which scholars and practitioners spent two days sharing research and ideas to deepen understanding of the many forms of employee ownership. Among wide-ranging

Joe Guinan and Sarah McKinley of The Democracy Collaborative discuss community wealth building and the need for a new way to determine the true value of local and regional economies beyond the common but distorted GDP and profit/loss metrics. They reflect on the total local public balance sheet as

As I travel around the country sharing the transformative power of employee ownership, I find that it’s not difficult for folks to fall in love. Indeed, the promise of a proven, common-sense pathway to reduce inequality, anchor jobs at home, and rebuild a strong and stable middle class by leveraging

Jessica Rose—The Democracy Collaborative’s Chief Financial Officer and Director of Employee Ownership Programs—talks employee ownership in the Mendoza Business Magazine. “If employee ownership is so great, why aren’t there more employee-owned businesses?” Jessica Rose (MBA ’14) says this question is

Jessica Rose, CFO and Director of Employee Ownership Programs at the Democracy Collaborative, shares how employee ownership offers a set of market-based solutions to combat inequality.

Jessica Rose—The Democracy Collaborative’s Chief Financial Officer and Director of Employee Ownership Programs—speaks to The Atlantic on the Evergreen Cooperatives: The project here is influenced in large part by the work of the Democracy Collaborative, a think tank based in Cleveland, Ohio

Jessica Rose—The Democracy Collaborative’s Chief Financial Officer and Director of Employee Ownership Programs—is mentioned in Employee-Owned America: To date, virtually every ESOP has come about because an individual company owner or family decided to sell their company to its employees. Who else

In this video, Jessica Rose, CFO and Director of Employee Ownership Programs at the Democracy Collaborative, explains how businesses can develop market-based solutions to income inequality.

On May 10, I stood with city dignitaries, hospital executives, and over 100 shop-floor employees to witness an historic ribbon-cutting ceremony, as Cleveland’s Evergreen Cooperative Laundry (ECL) announced it was taking over operation of the Cleveland Clinic’s massive industrial laundry facility

The moment is right for employee business ownership to go to scale. The models are tested and proven, the increasing struggles of American families makes the need apparent, and the baby boomer retirement wave presents a once-in-a-lifetime surge in demand for a variety of business transition options

In this episode of Next Economy Now, Shawn Berry, a Partner at LIFT Economy, interviews Jessica Rose from the Democracy Collaborative and Adam Trott from the Valley Alliance of Worker Cooperatives. The Democracy Collaborative has been doing important work around community wealth building, one of