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Innovations
in Ownership
Recent historic
political shifts within the United States—particularly
as embodied in the movement away from "big government," the
radical redirection of social welfare programs, and the mobility
of capital due to escalating globalization—will have significant
ramifications for the quality of life in communities across
the country. How will communities cope with the new financial
and social realities that they now face? How will existing
jobs be retained and new jobs generated at a time when capital
is becoming increasingly global in its movement? How can communities
stabilize their economic base? What is the future of community-based
economic development?
The answers,
we believe, lie at least in part in a diverse set of community-building
institutions that are neither corporate nor government in
principle, base or orientation. These innovations in ownership
emanate from grassroots initiatives which enhance local control
of decision making and productive assets through local-level
institutions. Below you will find
examples.
Beneath
the surface of what we normally think of as the U.S. economy—giant
transnational corporations and banks, international trade,
stock markets, individual entrepreneurs, franchise operations,
small mom and pop shops—an alternative approach to organizing
economic activity is growing around the country. This phenomenon
is comprised of thousands upon thousands of new style enterprises
that do not have a traditional ownership or decision-making
structure.
Some are
owned by the people who work in them, by the community at
large or by the city government. Others are owned by their
customers or by locally-based nonprofit groups. All share
in common one essential quality: they are rooted in the community.
Unlike many businesses today, these firms cannot get up and
leave—taking jobs and economic stability with them—in
the pursuit of higher profits or less regulation. These real-life
innovations in cities large and small, liberal and conservative,
are creating enduring jobs, spreading ownership of wealth,
fostering democracy and participation, and stabilizing place.
For the
past two years, the National Center for Economic and Security
Alternatives has surveyed these emerging forms of community-rooted,
asset-building institutions and enterprises.
These
neighborhood and community-based economic institutions include
such models and innovations as:
Over the
past decade, such models and experiments have experienced
tremendous growth throughout the country. In the 1960s, for
example, there were fewer than 100 CDCs; today there are some
3,000 in every medium and large-size city in America. Twenty
years ago, the idea that workers would own productive capital
at their workplaces was considered wildly impractical and
even quasi-socialistic. Today, there are more workers enrolled
in ESOPs than are members of private sector unions; through
these and other ownership schemes, American workers now control
more than 8% of the total corporate equity in the U.S.
More innovations
in ownership are coming on line all the time. While they still
comprise a small part of the total economy, these innovations
in ownership begin to point the way toward new possibilities
for organizing our economy and stabilizing our communities.
The best
and most innovative of these efforts share in common characteristics
essential to meaningful and sustaining community building
and stability:
- They
are anchored in the community by virtue of their ownership
structure, and are therefore unlikely to leave in the pursuit
of higher profits, lower wages or less regulation;
- They
involve the local control of assets and capital, an essential
building block of community economic development;
- They
have a multiplier effect, in that they keep locally spent
money circulating within the community;
- They
tend to emphasize and reinforce democratic values and participation;
and
- They
embody mechanisms of accountability to their participants,
stakeholders and the community-at-large.
While they
vary widely in effectiveness, viability, scale and scope,
the most innovative of these experiments are practical examples
of already-functioning alternative institutions and projects
that nurture such important core values as democracy, equality,
liberty and sustainability. More than simply theoretical approaches
to local economic development, these innovations are beginning
to enhance community life through community ownership and
control of local enterprise, banking establishments and productive
assets, low-interest loans to poor families and small entrepreneurs,
greater self-esteem among community members, a renewal of
democratic participation and empowerment of local initiative.
Other
Models & Innovations include:
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