Philanthropic Foundations, Public Policy, and Democratic Legitimacy

• In Event: Education and Philanthropy SIG Business Meeting

Abstract

Private philanthropic foundations are endowed with material and political resources that afford them a central role within public policy, but represent a largely hidden source of influence in the policy-making process, since they are not subject to democratic mechanisms of accountability. Foundations’ political influence has amplified as their financial resources have expanded – making them especially consequential in the fiscally-constrained field of public education. I examine the range of normative views that exist regarding foundations as political actors in a democracy, as well as investigating different foundations’ approaches towards policy. I employ a cross-case comparison model, based on interviews with nearly 40 informants, to analyze five of the largest and most influential foundations pursuing educational policy reform.

Author

• Megan Elizabeth Tompkins-Stange, University of Michigan