Democracy & Governance

The story of how the city of Preston in the UK got inspired by Cleveland’s Evergreen Cooperatives and helped launch a movement to build community wealth and a more democratic economy. read more

In this video, Next System Project Co-chair Gar Alperovitz sketches the major institutions of a systemic alternative based in plural forms of democratic ownership, orientated around community at various scales—what he calls “The Pluralist Commonwealth.” read more

Social systems, whether they exist at the local, regional, or global levels, do not last forever. Capitalism, as a globalizing political economic system committed to profit making and continual economic growth, has created a treadmill of production and consumption that is heavily dependent upon fossil fuels and has resulted in greenhouse gas emissions that drive climate change. read more

As part of our “New Systems: Possibilities and Proposals” series, Robin Hahnel sketched the basic contours of a model for a participatory economy. read more

Democratize labor! Democratize capital! Democratize democracy! These are the rallying cries David Schweickart deploys in his call for Economic Democracy, one of the first papers in our “New Systems” series exploring viable political-economic alternatives to the present order. read more

We co-hosted this online panel with the New Economy Coalition for New Economy Week 2015, featuring speakers from the Institute for Policy Studies, Emerald Cities Cooperative, PUSH Buffalo, and the Asian Pacific Environmental Network. read more

The system is broken—so where do we start building a new one? Faced with interlocking ecological, economic, and political crises, local innovators are organizing at the city level to develop real foundations for systemic alternatives. read more