Civic Power Rebuilding American Democracy in an Era of Crisis

What will it take to restore American democracy and rescue it from this moment of crisis? Civic Power argues that the current threat to US democracy is rooted not just in the outcome of the 2016 election, but in deeper, systemic forms of inequality that concentrate economic and political power in the hands of the few at the expense of the many. Drawing on historical and social science research and case studies of contemporary democratic innovations across the country, Civic Power calls for a broader approach to democracy reform focused on meaningfully redistributing power to citizens. It advocates for both reviving grassroots civil society and novel approaches to governance, policymaking, civic technology, and institutional design - aimed at dismantling structural disparities to build a more inclusive, empowered, bottom-up democracy, where communities and people have greater voice, power, and agency.

Preface; 1. Democracy in crisis; Part I. Civic Power through Organizing: 2. Democracy and inequality as a function of the balance of power; 3. Organizing for power; Part II. Civic Power through Governance: 4. From governance to power – rethinking democracy reform; 5. Bureaucratizing participation; 6. Power-oriented policy design; 7. Conclusion – democracy's future; Bibliography.

K. Sabeel Rahman is the President of Demos, a think-and-do tank committed to building a more inclusive and equitable democracy and economy. He is also an Associate Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School, where he teaches constitutional law and administrative law. Rahman is a leading scholar of democracy, law, and inequality, and is the author of Democracy against Domination (2016), which won the American Political Science Association's Dahl Award.
Hollie Russon Gilman is a Lecturer at Columbia University and holds research fellowships at New America and Georgetown's Beeck Center. Her work focuses on the intersection of civic engagement, technology, and governance. She is the author of Democracy Reinvented: Participatory Budgeting and Civic Innovation in America (2016). She served in the Obama Administration in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.