The Democracy Collaborative (TDC) pursues an institutional approach to change through “evolutionary reconstruction”—a longer term theory of transformative change seeking to displace rather than simply regulate, offset, or counter-balance the power of corporate and other institutions producing undesirable social, economic, and environmental outcomes. While open to large-order shifts stemming from crisis moments, TDC’s theory of change does not depend upon revolutionary upheavals or rupture, nor does it contend that steady incremental reforms can bring about change on the necessary scale. Instead, TDC seeks steady build-up of political-economic alternatives that suggest wider strategic changes in how the economy operates, which can then tip-over into systemic transformation. TDC’s vision is a future economy, in the United States and around the world, where all people and communities can flourish and exert greater democratic control over their own lives and destinies. TDC seeks to articulate a compelling, historically-grounded vision of a democratic economy and powerful demonstration projects conveying the viability and practicability of that model and pathways for getting there. TDC pursues two main programs: Community Wealth Building (CWB), an economic development model transforming local economies based on communities having direct ownership and control of their assets, challenging failing approaches widely accepted in economic development and addressing wealth inequality at its core to democratize the economy from the ground up; and The Next System Project, aimed at bold thinking and action to address systemic challenges of economic inequality, racial injustice, failing democracy, and climate change, building a democratic economy where democratic principles of popular sovereignty are extended from the political realm to the economy itself such that wealth is held in common, making for a just, accountable, and community-sustaining system operating within planetary boundaries.
Why it matters: TDC articulates a theory of transformative change between revolutionary upheaval and inadequate incremental reform, demonstrating that systemic transformation can emerge through steady build-up of political-economic alternatives that tip-over into wider strategic changes—what it calls “evolutionary reconstruction.” By focusing on displacement rather than regulation or counter-balancing of corporate power, TDC recognizes that addressing economic inequality, racial injustice, and climate change requires not moderating existing institutions but building democratic alternatives with direct community ownership and control. The organization’s combination of Community Wealth Building creating ground-up transformation through local ownership and The Next System Project extending democratic principles from politics to economy itself shows that creating a just, accountable system operating within planetary boundaries requires both practical demonstration projects proving viability and bold systemic thinking about how wealth can be held in common.