How can we create and sustain an America that never was, but should be? How can we build a robust multiracial democracy in which everyone is valued and everyone possesses political, economic and social capital? How can democracy become a meaningful way of life, for all citizens? By critically probing these questions, the editors of Community Wealth Building and the Reconstruction of American Democracy seize the opportunity to bridge the gap between our democratic aspirations and our current reality.
Table of Contents
Part One: Community Wealth Building and the Promise of Democratic Reconstruction
Introduction : Can We Make American Democracy Work?
Melody C. Barnes, Corey D. B. Walker, and Thad Williamson
Chapter 1: Becoming the American Community We Should Be—But Have Never Been
Melody C. Barnes and Thad Williamson
Part Two: Racial Justice and American Democracy
Chapter 2: Repairing American Democracy?
Lawrie Balfour
Chapter 3: Paideia, Politics, and the People: Deep Democracy and the New Urban Commons
Corey D. B. Walker
Part Three: Political Economy and Community Wealth Building
Chapter 4: Capitalism and the Future of Democracy
Isabel Sawhill
Chapter 5: Community Wealth Building: Lessons from Italy
Margaret Kohn
Chapter 6: A Place to Call Home? Property, Freedom, and the Commonwealth
Richard Dagger
Part Four: The Politics of Democratic Reform
Chapter 7: Achieving Accountability—Or Not—In Contemporary Times
Kenneth P. Ruscio
Chapter 8: Ranking Ballots and Policy Juries: Institutional Reforms for Further Democratization in America
Jason S. Maloy
Chapter 9: Gendered (and Racialized) Partisan Polarization
Nicholas J. G. Winter
Chapter 10: “Many New Barriers”: Democracy and Resistance to the Voting Rights Act of 1965
Julian Maxwell Hayter
Part Five: Toward a Practical Politics of Community Wealth Building
Chapter 11: Targeted Universalism in Urban Communities: Racial Discourse and Policy Rhetoric as Harmony
Ravi K. Perry
Chapter 12: Identifying Structural Racism as a Barrier to Community Wealth Building
Risha R. Berry
Chapter 13: The University as Anchor Institution in Community Wealth Building: Snapshots from Two Virginia Universities
Barbara Brown Wilson and Meghan Z. Gough
Chapter 14: Conclusion: The Promise of 21st Century Democratic Renewal
Corey D.B. Walker and Thad Williamson