Progressive Social Change

Economics -> American Capitalism and Social Justice Fall 11

Demos

National social movement organization, Demos, was founded in 2000 in the state of New York. The organization is working to strengthen the middle class to better the lives for future generations. Demos combines research, policy development, and advocacy in order to have influence over public opinion and ultimately create change.**

Target issues:
Economy and opportunity
Democracy and elections
Government and public sector
Trade and international
Sustainability and growth

Alperovitz: Aiming to renew national democracy by strengthening local level democracy Organizations first goal, which is to create "A more equitable economy with opportunity for all" is relative to Alperovitz's goal of democratizing wealth (principle that ownership of wealth must ultimately be shifted, institutionally, to benefit the majority)

Other goals:

  "A robust democracy in which all Americans are empowered to participate"
  "A strong public sector that can provide for our common interests and shared needs" 

Domhoff**: As Domhoff highlights, there is large lack of diversity amongst both the corporate community and political officials, for this reason, Demos is in support of more diverse leaders.

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Progressive Change Committee

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee was founded by Stephanie Taylor and Adam Green and includes over 850,000 members across the US. MSNBC dubbed it the “top progressive group in the country”. The PCC supports the 99% movement to challenge the concentration of power and money in the US. Domhoff explains that in America, less than 1 percent of the population is part of the upper class and they overlap greatly with the corporate community. Together both groups have networks to help them plan policies and develop uniform opinions or interests. Domhoff explains that a few corporations connected in a network hold the most economic power in the US. Although there are over 23 million farmers and small businesses, a few hundred corporations monopolize the economy. Many even have interlocking boards of directors. Farms and small businesses may have local power, but they lack the type of organization that corporations use to effect national policy. The PCCC strives to organize its members to promote the interests farms, small businesses and the rest of the 99%..
The PCC tries to affect change in government by endorsing progressive candidates and raising money for their campaigns. For example, the PCC drafted Elizabeth Warren for the Senate Movement, As Domhoff explains, power elites use their influence in the government to create policies that promote their interests. Corporations are often able to use their capital and lobbyists to promote special interests. They might affect regulatory rulings, find loopholes in laws or gain tax breaks. The PCC targets these injustices by campaigning for progressive issues, such as ending Bush tax cuts. They also try to protect funding for medicare, medicaide and social security. Though as Domhoff explains the advertising council deflects any criticism of corporations by focusing on individual responsibility, the PCC wants Wall Street to be held accountable.
The ideals of the PCC align with Alperovitz’s hope for a Pluralist Commonwealth. The whole concept of the 99% aims at redistributing wealth and limiting corporate control. By promoting social programs like medicare and medicade, the PCC, like Alpervoitz, promotes public wealth. Unlike Alpervoitz, the PCC’s list of issues do not include forms of public ownership or cooperatives. They do not include promoting worker owned organizations although the PCC would probably support efforts to give workers more autonomy. Because the PCC campaigns for “the people”, they would likely condone the increased democracy and equality in worker run organizations. Yates also promotes workers rights in his book Why Unions Matter. Though the PCC does not directly promote unions, workers are part of the 99% which the PCC supports. There are clear advantages for union members, including fair pay, due process, benefits, vacation time etc.
Overall, the PCC promotes social justice ideals. The 99% movement is an attempt to break up highly concentrated wealth, which often depends on inheritance or the exploitation of others. The current economic system in America is unjust because individuals often do not get the outcomes that they deserve. Additionally, the PCC promotes participatory management by endorsing candidates and issues that are often ignored by the power elite. They help give farmers, workers and small businesses political representation.

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The Real Utopias Project

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The Real Utopias Project, begun in 1991, is a series of conferences that are geared toward enacting radical social change. Scholars from across the globe are invited to discuss social issues and of these, a few are chosen to compose essays that will be discussed at the conferences and then revised after having been altered and challenged through intellectual dialogue. These essays are included in the Real Utopias Project Series.

Mission: Actualize the future existence of a utopian society which fosters ideals that are grounded in reasonable potentials for redesigning social institutions. The Real Utopias Project reflects an ideology that promotes a change in the existing social order through pragmatic analysis of societal problems and then restructuring of society’s institutional design. Through serious and extensive discussion of social issues, the project hopes to prioritize and mobilize fundamental social change. Some of the issues covered in the project’s conferences include property rights and the market, secondary associations, the family, the welfare state.

Published Books of The Real Utopias Project (since 2010)

• Associations and Democracy, by Joshua Cohen and Joel Rogers, with contributions by Paul Q. Hirst, Ellen Immergut, Ira Katznelson, Heinz Klug, Andrew Levine, Jane Mansbridge, Claus Offe,, Philippe Schmitter, Wolfgang Streeck, Andrew Szasz and Iris Young. Edited and introduced by Erik Olin Wright (Volume I, Real Utopias Project Series, London: Verso, 1995)

• Equal Shares: making market socialism work, by John Roemer, with contributions by Richard J. Arneson, Fred Block, Harry Brighouse, Michael Burawoy, Joshua Cohen, Nancy Folbre , Andrew Levine, Mieke Meurs, Louis Putterman, Joel Rogers, Debra Satz, Julius Sensat, William H. Simon, Frank Thompson, Thomas E. Weisskopf, Erik Olin Wright. Edited and introduced by Erik Olin Wright (Volume II, Real Utopias Project Series, London: Verso, 1996) • Recasting Egalitarianism: New Rules for Accountability and Equity in Markets, States and Communities, by Sam Bowles and Herbert Gintis with contributions by Daniel M. Hausman, John E. Roemer, Erik Olin Wright, Karl Ove Moene, Michael Wallerstein, Peter Skott David M. Gordon, Harry Brighouse, Elaine McCrate, Andrew Levine, Paula England, Steven N. Durlauf, Ugo Pagano, Michael R. Carter, and Karla Hoff. Edited and Introduced by Erik Olin Wright. (Volune III, Real Utopias Project Series, London: Verso, 1999) • Deepening Democracy: innovations in empowered participatory governance, by Archon Fung and Erik Olin Wright, with contributions by Rebecca Neaera Abers, Gianpaolo Baiocchi, Joshua Cohen, Patrick Heller, Bradley C. Karkkainen, Rebecca S. Krantz, Jane Mansbridge, Joel Rogers, Craig W. Thomas, and T.M. Thomas Isaac. (Volume IV of the Real Utopias Project Series, London, Verso, 2003)

• Redesigning Distribution: basic income and stakeholder grants as cornerstones of a more egalitarian capitalism, by Bruce Ackerman, Ann Alstott and Philippe van Parijs, with contributions by Barbara Bergmann, Irv Garfinkle, Chien-Chung Huang , Wendy Naidich, Julian LeGrand, Carole Pateman, Guy Standing, Stuart White, and Erik Olin Wright (Volume V of the Real Utopias Project Series, London: Verso, 2006)

•Gender Equality: Transforming Family Divisions of Labor, By Janet Gornick and Marcia Meyers, with contributions by Barbara Bergmann, Johanna Brenner, Harry Brighouse, Scott Coltrane, Rosemary Crompton, Myra Marx Ferree, Nancy Folbre, Heidi Hartman, Shireen Hassim, Lane Kenworthy, Vicki Lovell, Cameron MacDonald, Peter McDonald, Ruth Milkman, Kimberly Morgan, Ann Orloff, Michael Shalev, Erik Olin Wright, Kathrin Zippel. Edited with a Preface by, Erik Olin Wright. (London and New York: Verso, 2009)

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