The Public-Private Polity: Democracy in an Age of Philanthropists and Social Entrepreneurs

• In Event: 490 - Thematic Session. Inequality and Philanthropy

Abstract

Contemporary inequality is experienced as both economic and political. As private philanthropic and voluntary efforts play an increasingly prominent role in mitigating the effects of economic inequality, they also challenge our understandings of the place of democratic decision-making premised on the equal rights of voters and the electoral basis for representation. The implications of this privatization of deliberation over public goods are explored through a comparison across municipal, regional, and national efforts to mobilize public-private collaborations to confront major social challenges and to provide public goods.

Author

• Elisabeth S. Clemens, University of Chicago