Monthly Archives: March 2017

Envisioning a Post-Trump Future

 

 

Josh Hoxie reviews Gar Alperovitz’s latest book Principles of a Pluralist Commonwealth on Inequality.org. He writes:

Gar Alperovitz and his colleagues at the Next Systems Project make a compelling case that we might be witnessing the beginnings of a similar realignment here early in the Trump era. Their new book, Principles of a Pluralist Commonwealth, lays out what our future could look like if we collectively decided to put people and the planet ahead of short term profit.

Click here to read the full piece.

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How Philanthropy Can Help Community Development Survive Trump

Trump’s presidency will likely do significant damage to community development especially for the communities that are most at risk. While philanthropy will certainly not be able to fill the massive gap left by cuts in federal spending, if used in the right way, it can help create local and regional programs and innovations that could be expanded when the political winds inevitably shift, contend Gar Alperovitz and Ted Howard in an article for The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

Donald Trump will not be president forever, but in his time in office he can do substantial damage in many areas of American life. As one donor told us, “We risk having 40 years of progress in community development unraveled in the next 18 months.”

Principally, that’s because the new administration, along with Republican congressional leaders, is targeting federal spending on social programs and community development — a major bulwark against the consequences of generational poverty and ever-growing wealth inequality. Hundreds of billions of dollars are at risk.

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The Possibility of a Pluralist Commonwealth Evolutionary Reconstruction Toward a Caring and Just Political Economy

In this article published in the Winter 2017 issue of the Interdisciplinary Journal of Partnership StudiesGar Alperovitz outlines the characteristics of the “Pluralist Commonwealth” model and the step-by-step movements that are already happening toward a democratic political economy that supports caring community.

New developments at various level of the political-economic system suggest possible institutional trajectories supportive of community, and a longer term systemic design more supportive of strong democracy and a caring culture. An integration of institutional elements also offers possibilities more productive of equality and ecologically sustainable outcomes. The “Pluralist Commonwealth” is both pluralist in its institutional characteristics and supportive of such “commonwealth” institutions as co-operatives, neighborhood land trusts and community corporations, municipal utilities and a range of other larger scale ownership forms. An “evolutionary reconstructive” institutional, political, and cultural path is projected as a longer term transformative process different from both traditional reform and traditional ideas of revolution. Such a path inherently seeks to maximize the development of a caring community as it builds.

Click here to read the full article.

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