About The Democracy Collaborative
The Democracy Collaborative is a U.S.-based research and development lab that is made for and offers a vision for the democratic economy.
The Democracy Collaborative is a U.S.-based research and development lab made for the democratic economy to practice the principles of a democratic economy. The collaborative offers a vision of what that democratic economy can be, by designing models that demonstrate how it operates and building in coalition with others the pathways to a new reality.
The Democracy Collaborative’s goal is to make the democratic economy, and the ownership transition that underpins it, a new common sense, an idea whose time has come. Their central task is to establish irreversible foundations in ideas and projects and viable policies so that a longer-term transformation of the political-economic system becomes an inevitable reality, flowing naturally from core shared values and institutional principles.
Working with a broad group of researchers, theorists and activists, the Democracy Collaborative is using both research, understanding and strategic thinking, while also utilizing on-the-ground organizing and development experience, to promote visions, models and pathways that point to a “next system” that is radically different in fundamental ways from the failed systems of the past and present and capable of delivering superior social, economic and ecological outcomes.
The collaborative is also developing and advancing new policy frameworks, like community wealth building, to aid policy-makers, academics, researchers, and legislators in the United States and across the world working to realize a more just and equitable world for all.
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 the Democracy Collaborative believes have been widely accepted in American economic development for too long, and addresses wealth inequality at its core. The collaborative believes that if it is practiced in a holistic and interconnected way, CWB can democratize our economy from the ground up to build the equitable and sustainable political-economic system we all need.