Leaders of national organizations and their funders need to share more resources and accept varied grassroots choices in different states and localities.
Theda Skocpol
Theda Skocpol is the Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology at Harvard University.
Posted inPolitics
Resistance Disconnect
How Indivisible’s national advocates and grassroots volunteers have pulled apart—and what could happen instead
Posted inArticle
Bringing Academics into the Grassroots Game
This piece is part of the Prospect’s series on progressives’ strategy over the next 40 years. To read the introduction, click here. Progressives were not at all ready to fight the battles we needed to fight during President Barack Obama’s first term in the state and local arenas. That’s why my colleagues and I are […]
Posted inSpecial Report
Time for National Greatness Liberalism
Our national economic fortune depends on reclaiming a credible role for large-scale public investment.
Posted inBooks, Arts and Culture
Partisans’ Progress
Princeton political scientist Larry Bartels casts provocative light on what’s at stake when Americans go to the polls.
Posted inSpecial Report
The Narrowing of Civic Life
Coming together in trade unions and farmers’ associations, fraternal chapters and veterans’ organizations, women’s groups and public-reform crusades, Americans more than a century ago created a raucous democracy in which citizens from all walks of life could be leaders and help to shape community life and public agendas. But U.S. civic life has changed fundamentally […]
Posted inFeatures
A Bad Senior Moment
In a middle-of-the-night vote held open for an unprecedented three hours on Nov. 21-22, Republican leaders finally corralled enough conservatives to ram through the House of Representatives a bill restructuring Medicare and authorizing a limited prescription-drug benefit. The vote was 220-to-215. Three days later, the Senate passed the same bill by a broader margin, 54-to-44. […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Associations Without Members
Civic America has changed. The local forms of participation have faded, and new national advocacy organizations relying on direct mail fundraising have mushroomed. While there are some benefits to the new forms of advocacy, the shift has hurt our shared sense of democratic citizenship.
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
Delivering for Young Families: The Resonance of the GI Bill
The problem isn’t that old folks get too much money from government — it’s that young families get too little. Recalling the GI Bill and the politics of generational solidarity.
Posted inBooks, Arts and Culture
Unsolved Mysteries: The Tocqueville Files
If only folks would turn off the TV and start attending PTA meetings, America’s future could be as bright as its civically engaged past. This diagnosis is taking shape in foundation-sponsored gatherings and among highbrow columnists. Privileged men and women–who spend most of their waking hours in their offices, on jet airplanes, and in front […]