Democratizing the Economy for a New Progressive Era

Come what may in November's presidential election, progressive prospects at the national level are far from encouraging. Truth be told, we live in an era of deepening stagnation and political stalemate. While the short-term consequences of who occupies the Oval Office are important, in the long term, the logic of the system as now structured is producing inexorable results: deepening inequality, proliferating ecological crises, and increasing pain for the majority. With the labor movement—the traditional countervailing power that drives progressive politics—at its historic nadir, we cannot expect the kind of systemic transformation we need to come from Washington.

Nevertheless, our present deadlock and decay open up possibilities for longer-term systemic change in surprising directions. Emerging beneath the media's electoral radar at the neighborhood, city, and state levels all across the country is what many have called "the new economy"—thousands of experiments that democratize ownership, stabilize communities, and build a more sustainable future. These developments address immediate needs while also pointing the

After many demonstrations like this one, Vermont's government passed a statewide single-payer health care initiative in May 2011. State and municipal reforms can pave the way for more systemic transformation at the national level.

way toward a more sweeping, possible longer-term systemic transformation. And at this moment—the prehistory of the next progressive era—this may well be the most important arena in which to organize.

What can be done, and what kind of victories can we win, if we shift our focus in this way? Cities are a powerful place where we can push for transformative steps toward a new economy. In Cleveland, Ohio, residents of some of the city's most devastated low-income neighborhoods of color have developed a network of green worker cooperatives. Other cities are beginning to launch similar initiatives—in most cases, not because of any deep ideological commitment to a progressive agenda, but simply because the old solutions are no longer working. Still other cities are experimenting with city ownership of sustainable energy. The citizens of Boulder, Colorado, for example, voted in a referendum to end the city's relationship with a private energy supplier and build a municipally owned clean energy utility in its place.

At the state level, many interesting developments are taking place: Sixteen states (most famously Vermont) have passed—or are exploring the creation of—a single-payer system or a public option in health care. Seventeen states have introduced legislation that would charter a publicly owned, nonprofit state bank, on the model of the successful Bank of North Dakota. Eleven states have passed bills—and four more are considering legislation—enabling businesses to become incorporated as "benefit corporations" or "B Corps," which are then required to live up to certain social or environmental commitments. This makes it legally possible for publicly traded companies to pursue social or environmental goals in addition to profit, balancing their obligation to their shareholders with an obligation to benefit society at large. (As of June 2012, seven states have passed B-Corp legislation.)

None of this is incompatible with a defense of traditional liberal strategies of regulation and reform at the national level. However, as such methods prove less and less effective, there is every reason to join the slow, steady, state-by-state and city-by-city struggle for a new, more just, more equitable, and more sustainable economic system that we can embrace in our communities and at the polls.

Whatever happens in November, if we're serious about changing the system, a bottom-up strategy for the long haul is of vital importance. And just possibly—as we saw in the long lead-up to the New Deal—a local, solutions-driven politics may provide the models and necessary groundwork for more comprehensive change at the national level when the next great moment of progressive change occurs.