Philanthropy, the Nonprofit Sector & the Democratic Dilemma

Bibliographic Data

ID9684674
AuthorsPeter Dobkin Hall (Lynn University, corresponding author)
Year2013
Volume142
Issue2
Pages139-158
Publication date2013-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueDaedalus (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0011-5266 • E-ISSN: 1548-6192
PublisherMIT Press - Journals (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1162/daed_a_00209
OpenAlexW2118042017
LanguageEN
Citations received5

The central dilemma of American democracy is the tension between “voice” and “equality”: between the Constitution's unconditional guarantees of citizens' expressive, associational, and property rights and the legal and political equality that is the foundation of majoritarian decision-making. Philanthropy and nonprofit organizations – which enable citizens to give money and time to support causes in which they believe – have posed this dilemma with unusual force, allowing moneyed minorities to oppose and sometimes overwhelm the popular will. In the past, these assertions of private power have inevitably aroused popular opposition producing legislative and regulatory outcomes that have maintained a balance between voice and equality. Today, with unprecedented accumulations of wealth and legal changes permitting the unrestricted use of wealth in politics, the unchallenged exercise of private power through philanthropy and the nonprofit sector poses grave threats to the democratic process

Constitution · Democracy · Dilemma · Law and economics · Legislature · Nonprofit Sector · Opposition (politics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Private sector · Sociology · Law · Nonprofit Sector and Volunteering · Public Administration

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