THE NEXT SYSTEM
A call for national discussion and debate
A call for national discussion and debate by Gar Alperovitz, James Gustave Speth, Jane Mansbridge,
Sarita Gupta, Bill McKibben, Danny Glover, Barbara Ehrenreich, Leo Gerard, Annie Leonard, Robert B.
Reich, Noam Chomsky, Anuradha Mittal, Jeffrey D. Sachs, Ralph Nader, Manuel Pastor, Erik Olin Wright,
Phyllis Bennis, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Oliver Stone, Nancy Fraser, Dean Baker, Gerald Torres, John James
Conyers, Jr., Jill Stein, Herman E. Daly, Boaventura de Sousa Santos, William Greider, Frances Fox Piven,
Juliet Schor, Larry Cohen, Medea Benjamin, Timothy E. Wirth, Emily Kawano, Saru Jayaraman, Jeff
Faux, Heather McGhee, James Mumm, Joseph Blasi, Paul S. Adler, Richard Falk, Seymour Hersh, Daniel
Ellsberg, Will Raap, Gerald Hudson, May Boeve, L. Hunter Lovins, Jose Zapata Calderon, Deepak Bhargava,
Lawrence Mishel, Angela Glover Blackwell, James Counts Early, Chuck Collins, Maya Schenwar, Heather
Booth, Robin Hahnel, Dayna Cunningham, J. Phillip Thompson, George Goehl, Saskia Sassen, Kai Bird,
Marcus Raskin, David Korten, Marta Ceroni, Carole Pateman, Bill Fletcher, Jr., Jessica Gordon Nembhard,
David W. Orr, Sonia E. Sachs, Alexis Goldstein, Michael Albert, Mark Weisbrot, J. Kēhaulani Kauanui, Julie
Matthaei, Christopher Jencks, Robert W. McChesney, Neva Goodwin, C. Otto Scharmer, Richard Heinberg,
Bob Massie, Ron Blackwell, Vijay Prashad, Fran Korten, Jeffrey Hollender, Joe Uehlein, Juanita Valdez-Cox,
Richard D. Wolff, John Cavanagh, Greg Grandin, James K. Boyce, Robert Costanza, Peter Kuznick, john a.
powell, Susan Witt, Lester Brown, Raj Patel, Carlos Pérez de Alejo, John Bellamy Foster, Michael Kazin,
Dick Mazess, Stacy Mitchell, Paul Raskin, Joel Rogers, Peter Marcuse, Michael C. Dawson, Todd Gitlin,
Jerry Mander, Anna Galland, Aaron Tanaka, Ed Whitfield, Peter Barnes, L. Randall Wray, Saket Soni, David
Schweickart, Judy Wicks, Michelle Long, Christian Parenti, Gayle McLaughlin, Peter G. Brown, & many others.
IT’S TIME TO FACE
THE DEPTH
OF THE
SYSTEMIC CRISIS
WE CONFRONT
thenextsystem.org
The following statement was developed with input from a small group of initial signatories
whose names are included in the statement. They have been joined by many more—activists,
policymakers, practitioners, business people, and scholars from across disciplines—in spelling out
the systemic nature of the current crisis we face as a society and the urgent need to think in terms
of systemic solutions.
It’s time for everyone who cares about our troubled country to face the depth of the
systemic crisis we now confront as a nation. We must step back from the daily fray and
ask: How do we actually get on a path to the kind of society—and world—we’d like now
and for future generations? We must begin a real conversation—locally, nationally, and at
all levels in between—on how to respond to the profound challenge of our time in history.
“If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending,” Lincoln said, “we could
better judge what to do.” Today’s answer to Lincoln’s charge is grim. If one looks at “where
we are” among advanced democracies across more than a score of key indicators of
national well-being—including relative poverty, inequality, education, social mobility, health,
environment, militarization, democracy, and more—we find ourselves exactly where we
don’t want to be: at or near the bottom.
The challenging realities of growing inequality, political stalemate, and climate disruption
prompt an important insight. When big problems emerge across the entire spectrum of
national life, it cannot be due to small reasons. When the old ways no longer produce
the outcomes we are looking for, something deeper is occurring. We have fundamental
problems because of fundamental flaws in our economic and political system. The crisis
now unfolding in so many ways across our country amounts to a systemic crisis.
Today’s political economic system is not programmed to secure the wellbeing of people,
place and planet. Instead, its priorities are corporate profits, the growth of GDP, and the
projection of national power. If we are to address the manifold challenges we face in a
serious way, we need to think through and then build a new political economy that takes
us beyond the current system that is failing all around us. However difficult the task,
however long it may take, systemic problems require systemic solutions.
The social pain arising from the economic crisis, the steady unfolding of the climate
calamity, and many other deeply troubling developments have made it possible to pose
the question of large-scale system change in a serious fashion in the United States. Yet,
despite this new space for a debate about fundamental change, challenges to the system
have until recently been constrained by a continuing lack of imagination concerning
social, economic and political alternatives. It is said that the existing system is the only
possibility, one we must accept and work with—that, as Margaret Thatcher famously
insisted, “There is no alternative.” But she had it wrong.
The good news is that the inability of traditional politics and policies to address
fundamental challenges has fueled an extraordinary amount of experimentation in
communities across the United States—and around the world. It has also generated an
increasing number of sophisticated and thoughtful proposals for transformative change.
Together these developments suggest that it is possible to build a new and better America
beyond the failed systems of the past and present.
Indeed, new terms have begun to gain currency among diverse social movements and
activist communities—an indication that the domination of traditional thinking has already
started to weaken. Thus we encounter the sharing economy, the caring economy, the
solidarity economy, the restorative economy, the regenerative economy, the sustaining
economy, the resilient economy, and, of course, the new economy. There is talk of the need
for a great transition. Several of these approaches already have significant networks and
thoughtful research efforts underway. New thinking by creative scholars and members of
the labor movement and community-oriented advocates is also contributing to the ferment.
It is time for Americans to think boldly about what is required to deal with the systemic
difficulties facing the United States. It is time to explore genuine alternatives and new
models—“the next system.” It is time to debate what it will take to move our country to a
very different place, one where outcomes that are truly sustainable, equitable, and
democratic are commonplace.
Those of us signing this statement are committed to working towards these ends.
Gar Alperovitz
Co-Founder
The Democracy Collaborative
Co-Chair, The Next System
Project
Hilary Abell
Co-Founder
Project Equity
Dean Abrahamson
Professor Emeritus of Energy
and Environmental Policy
University of Minnesota
Frank Ackerman
Lecturer
Massachusetts
Institute of Technology
Senior Economist
Synapse Energy Economics
Paul S. Adler
Professor of Management and
Organization
University of Southern California
James Gustave Speth
Board Member
The New Economy Coalition
Co-Chair, The Next System
Project
Kali Akuno
Coordinator
Cooperation Jackson
Organizer
Malcolm X Grassroots Movement
Michael Albert
Co-Founder
Z Communications
Co-Author
Participatory Economy vision
Lindsey Allen
Executive Director
Rainforest Action Network
Patrick Almonrode
350NYC
Rev. Dr. Jim Antal
Conference Minister,
President Massachusetts
Conference
United Church of Christ
Angela Atwood
Executive Director
College Houses
Robert U. Ayres
Professor of Environmental
Management, Center for the
Management of the
Environment and Resources
INSEAD - Institut Européen
d’Administration des Affaires
Jay Thomas Bad Heart Bull
President and CEO
Native American Community
Development Institute
Gianpaolo Baiocchi
Director, Urban Democracy Lab
New York University
Dean Baker
Co-Director
Center for Economic and Policy
Research
Gopal Balakrishnan
Associate Professor
History of Consciousness
Department
University of California, Santa
Cruz
Jill Bamburg
President
Bainbridge Graduate Institute
Pinchot University
Aman Banerji
Community Manager
Roosevelt Institute Campus
Network
Peter Barnes
Author
With Liberty andDividends for All
Ed Barry
Director
Sustainable World Initiative
Sustainable Living Adviser
Population Institute
Allison Basile
Co-Founder
Impact Hub DC
Ben Beachy
Research Director
Global Trade Watch
Public Citizen
Medea Benjamin
Co-Founder
CODEPINK
Phyllis Bennis
Fellow, Institute for Policy Studies
Fellow, Transnational Institute
Suzanne Bergeron
Professor of Womens’ Studies
and Social Sciences
University of Michigan Dearborn
Elaine Bernard
Executive Director, Labor and
Worklife Program
Harvard Law School
Rajasvini Bhansali
Executive Director
International Development
Exchange
Deepak Bhargava
Executive Director
Center for Community Change
Keane Bhatt
Journalist, Activist
Kai Bird
Author, Biographer
Angela Glover Blackwell
Founder and CEO
PolicyLink
Ron Blackwell
Former Chief Economist
UNITE and AFL-CIO
Joseph Blasi
J. Robert Beyster Distinguished
Professor, School of Manage-
ment and Labor Relations
Rutgers University
May Boeve
Co-Founder and Executive
Director
350.org
Heather Booth
Democracy Partners
Craig Borowiak
Associate Professor of Political
Science
Haverford College
James K. Boyce
Professor of Economics
University of Massachusetts,
Amherst
Jessica Brackman
Board Member
New Economy Coalition
J. Alan Brewster
Chair, Energy Advisory Board
City of Milford, Connecticut
Former Deputy Dean
School of Forestry & Environ-
mental Studies, Yale University
Former Senior Vice President
World Resources Institute
Robin Broad
Professor, School of
International Service
American University
Ellen H. Brown
President Emeritus, Founder
and Senior Advisor
Public Banking Institute
Lester R. Brown
President and Founder
Earth Policy Institute
Peter G. Brown
Professor, School of
Environment, and Departments of
Geography and Natural Resource
Sciences
McGill University
John Burroughs
Executive Director
Lawyers Committee on
Nuclear Policy
Dallas Burtraw
Darius Gaskins Senior Fellow
Associate Director
Center for Climate and Electricity
Policy Resources for the Future
Marco Buttazzoni
Climate Change Mitigation and
Sustainability Advisor
Owner, Buttazzoni Consulting
Jacqueline Cabasso
Executive Director
Western States Legal Foundation
Jose Zapata Calderon
Emeritus Professor of
Sociology and Chicano/a and
Latino/aStudies
Pitzer College
Katie Campbell
Founder and Executive Director
Aynah
John Cavanagh
Director
Institute for Policy Studies
Marta Ceroni
Executive Director
Donella Meadows Institute
Karen Chapple
Professor, City and Regional Planning
Interim Director, Institute of
Urban and Regional Development
Faculty Director, Center for
Community Innovation
Co-Chair, Master of City Planning
Program
University of California, Berkeley
Theresa Chelikowsky
Executive Director
Florida Alliance of Community
Development Corporations, Inc.
Noam Chomsky
Institute Professor, Professor of
Linguistics Emeritus
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology
Leslie Christian
Investment Advisor
Leslie E Christian LLC
Tiy Chung
Researcher
SCORAI
Christina A. Clamp
Professor, School of Arts and
Sciences
Director, Ph.D. Program, Com-
munity Economic Development
Director, Center for
Co-operatives & CED
Southern New Hampshire
University
Mary M. Cleveland
Adjunct Professor of
Environmental Economics
School of International and
Public Affairs
Columbia University
Jaimie Cloud
President
Cloud Institute for Sustainability
Education
David Cobb
National Spokesperson
Move to Amend
Larry Cohen
President
Communications Workers of
America
Maurie Cohen
Associate Professor and
Director, Program in Science,
Technology & Society
New Jersey Institute of
Technology
Jonathan Cohn
Managing Editor
Great Transition Initiative
Tellus Institute
Peter Colavito
Director, Government Relations
Service Employees International
Union
Romand Coles
Frances B. McAllister Endowed Chair
Director, Program for
Community, Culture and
Environment
Northern Arizona University
Chuck Collins
Senior Scholar
Institute for Policy Studies
Co-Founder
Wealth for the Common Good
Melvyn Colón
Executive Director
Southside Institutions
Neighborhood Alliance
Ken Conca
Professor, School of
International Service
American University
Representative John
James Conyers, Jr.
Member of Congress (D)
Thirteenth District, Michigan
Christine G. Cordero
Program Director
Center for Story-Based Strategy
Teresa Córdova
Director, Great Cities Institute
University of Illinois at Chicago
Jose Corona
Chief Executive Officer
Inner City Advisors (ICA)
Robert Costanza
Professor of Public Policy
Australian National University
Editor-in-Chief, Solutions
Harvey Cox
Hollis Research Professor of
Divinity
Harvard University
Reid Cramer
Director, Asset Building Program
New America Foundation
Charlie Cray
Research Specialist
Greenpeace
Ronnie Cummins
Director
Organic Consumers Association
Dayna Cunningham
Executive Director, Community
Innovators Lab (CoLab)
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology
Elliott Currie
Professor of Criminology, Law
and Society
University of California, Irvine
Brian Czech
President
Center for the Advancement of
the Steady State Economy
Herman E. Daly
Professor Emeritus
School of Public Policy
University of Maryland
Bob Dandrew
Director, Local Economies Project
New World Foundation
Gerald Davis
Wilbur K. Pierpont Collegiate
Professor of Management
University of Michigan
Michael C. Dawson
John D. MacArthur Professor of
Political Science and College
Director, Center for the Study of
Race, Politics, and Culture
University of Chicago
Gopal Dayaneni
Collective Member
Movement Generation: Justice
and Ecology Project
John de Graaf
Executive Director
Take Back Your Time
s
Professor of Sociology
University of Coimbra (Portugal)
Distinguished Legal Scholar
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Peter Dreier
Dr. E.P. Clapp Distinguished
Professor of Politics
Chair, Urban and Environmental
Policy Department
Occidental College
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
Professor Emerita
California State University
Riley E. Dunlap
Dresser Professor and Regents
Professor of Sociology
Oklahoma State University
Ethan Earle
Project Manager, North America
Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung
New York Office
Advisory Board Member
The Working World
James Counts Early
Board of Trustees
Institute for Policy Studies
Farhad A. Ebrahimi
Founder and Trustee Chair
The Chorus Foundation
David Ehrenfeld
Distinguished Professor of
Biology
Rutgers University
Barbara Ehrenreich
Author
Michael Eisenscher
National Coordinator
US Labor Against the War
Daniel Ellsberg
Author, Whistleblower
Gerald Epstein
Professor of Economics and
Co-Director, Political Economy
Research Institute
University of Massachusetts
Amherst
Boaventura de Sousa Santos
Jon D. Erickson
Professor of Ecological Economics
Fellow, Gund Institute for Eco-
logical Economics
University of Vermont
Sara Day Evans
Founding Director
Accelerating Appalachia
Co-Founder
Prosperity Collective
Elena Fairley
Program and Communications
Director
Prospera Co-ops
Richard Falk
Milbank Professor of
International Law Emeritus
Princeton University
Joshua Farley
Professor, Community Develop-
ment and Applied Economics
and Public Administration
University of Vermont
Anika Fassia
Director of Outreach
Public Works
Jeff Faux
Founder and Distinguished Fellow
Economic Policy Institute
Author
The Servant Economy
Richard Feldman
James and Grace Lee Boggs
Center to Nurture Community
Leadership
Deeohn Ferris
President and Founder
Sustainable Community
Development Group
Eric M. Fink
Associate Professor of Law
Elon University
Lorenzo Fioramonti
Professor of Political Economy
University of Pretoria (South Africa)
Director
Centre for the Study of
Governance Innovation
Richard Flacks
Professor of Sociology
University of California, Santa
Barbara
Bill Fletcher, Jr.
Senior Scholar
Institute for Policy Studies
Margaret Flowers
Co-Director
It’s Our Economy
A project of PopularResistance
William E. Forbath
Lloyd M. Bentsen Chair in Law
Associate Dean of Research,
School of Law
Professor of History
University of Texas Austin
John Bellamy Foster
Professor of Sociology
University of Oregon
Nancy Fraser
Henry A. and Louise Loeb
Professor of Politics and
Philosophy
New School for Social Research
Omar Freilla
Coordinator
Green Worker Cooperatives
George Friday
Leadership Team Member and
Co-Founder
Move to Amend
National Planning Committee
Member
US Social Forum
Deborah Frieze
Founding Partner
Boston Impact Initiative
John Fullerton
Founder and President
Capital Institute
Anna Galland
Executive Director
MoveOn.org Civic Action
Douglas Gamble
Member, Board of Directors
Manufacturing Renaissance
Laura Gang
Coordinator, Greater Boston
Move to Amend
Herbert J. Gans
Robert S. Lynd Professor
Emeritus Sociology
Columbia University
Dave Gardner
Filmmaker, Growthbusters
Leo Gerard
International President
United Steelworkers
Todd Gitlin
Professor of Journalism and
Sociology Chair, PhD Program in
Communications
Columbia University
Danny Glover
Actor, Social Activist
Tim Glynn-Burke
Associate Director of
Democratic Governance and
Student Programs, Ash Center
for Democratic Governance and
Innovation
Harvard University
George Goehl
Executive Director
National People’s Action
Alexis Goldstein
Writer, Activist
Communications Director
The Other 98%
Eban Goodstein
Director, MBA in Sustainability
Director, Center for
Environmental Policy
Bard College
Neva Goodwin
Co-Director, Global Development
and Environment Institute
Tufts University
Linda Gordon
University Professor of the
Humanities
Florence Kelley Professor of
History
New York University
Greg Grandin
Professor of History
New York University
Alisa Gravitz
President
Green America
William Greider
National Affairs Correspondent
The Nation
John A. Grim
Senior Lecturer and Senior
Research Scholar
Yale School of Forestry and
Environmental Studies
Christopher Gunn
Professor of Economics Emeritus
Hobart and William Smith Colleges
Sarita Gupta
Executive Director
Jobs With Justice
Robin Hahnel
Professor Emeritus
American University
Visiting Professor
Portland State University
Gwendolyn Hallsmith
Executive Director
Public Banking Institute
Founder, Global Community
Initiatives and Vermonters for a
New Economy
Ian F. Haney-López
John H. Boalt Professor of Law
University of California, Berkeley
Hildegarde Hannum
Board of Directors
Schumacher Center for a New
Economics
Rev. Fletcher Harper
Executive Director
GreenFaith
Keith Harrington
Co-Founder
International Student Initiative
for Pluralist Economics
Lisa Hasegawa
Executive Director
National Coalition for Asian
Pacific American Community
Development
Paul Hawken
Author
Founder, Project Drawdown
Randy Hayes
Executive Director
Foundation Earth
Richard Heinberg
Senior Fellow-in-Residence
Post Carbon Institute
Seymour Hersh
Journalist
Rita Axelroth Hodges
Assistant Director, Netter Center
for Community Partnerships
Penn Program for Public Service
School of Arts and Sciences
University of Pennsylvania
Jeffrey Hollender
Founder and Chief
Executive Officer
Sustain
Co-Founder and former
Chief Executive Officer
Seventh Generation
Melissa Hoover
Interim Executive Director
US Federation of Worker
Cooperatives
Founding Director
Democracy at Work Institute
Louise A. Howells
Professor of Law
UDC David A. Clarke
School of Law
Gerald Hudson
InternationalExecutive Vice
President
Service Employees
International Union
Joshua Humphreys
President and Senior Fellow
Croatan Institute
Leah Hunt-Hendrix
Co-Founder
Solidaire
Board Member
New Economy Coalition
Jonathan T. Isham, Jr.
Director
Center for Social
Entrepreneurship
Professor of Economics
Middlebury College
Nick Iuviene
Program Director
Just Urban Economies
MIT Community Innovators Lab
Janine Jackson
Program Director
Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting
Sushil Jacob
Director
Green-Collar Communities Clinic
(GC3), East Bay Community Law
Center
Berkeley Law
David Jacobs
Associate Professor of Labor,
Business and Society
Graves School of Business and
Management
Morgan State University
Saru Jayaraman
Co-Founder and Co-Director
Restaurant Opportunities
Centers United
Director
Food Labor Research Center
University of California
Berkeley
Christopher Jencks
Malcolm Wiener Professor of
Social Policy
Harvard University
Christina A. Jennings
Executive Director
Northcountry Cooperative
Development Fund
Anne R. Kapuscinski
Sherman Fairchild
Distinguished Professor of
Sustainability Science
Dartmouth College
Jenny Kassan
Chief Executive Officer
Cutting Edge Capital
John B. Kassel
President
Conservation Law Foundation
Tim Kasser
Professor of Psychology
Knox College
J. Kēhaulani Kauanui
Associate Professor of American
Studies and Anthropology
Wesleyan University
Emily Kawano
Coordinator
U.S. Solidarity Economy
Network
Staff Economist
Center for Popular Economics
Michael Kazin
Professor of History
Georgetown University
Co-Editor
Dissent Magazine
Esteban Kelly
Staff Leadership Team
New Economy Coalition
Board Member
National Cooperative Business
Association
Marjorie Kelly
Senior Fellow
The Democracy Collaborative
Lee Ketelsen
Coordinator
Shamus Khan
Associate Professor of Sociology
Columbia University
David Korten
Founder and President
Living Economies Forum
Fran Korten
Executive Director and Publisher
YES! Magazine
Nicolas Kosoy
Assistant Professor, School of
Environment and Department of
Natural Resource Sciences
McGill University
Dan Kovalik
Adjunct Professor, International
Human Rights
University of Pittsburgh School
of Law
Benjamin Kunkel
Author
Utopia or Bust: A Guide to the
Present Crisis
Peter Kuznick
Professor of History
Director, Nuclear Studies
Institute
American University
Alnoor Ladha
Executive Director
The Rules
Erik Lampmann
Researcher, Activist
Marilyn Langlois
Co-Founder
Richmond Progressive Alliance
Richmond, California Planning
Commissioner
Annie Leonard
Author
The Story of Stuff
Executive Director
Greenpeace USA
Rabbi Michael Lerner
Editor
Tikkun Magazine
Chair
Network of Spiritual Progressives
Andrea Levere
President
Corporation for Enterprise
Development
Ariana Levinson
Associate Professor of Law
University of Louisville
Mark Levinson
Chief Economist
Service Employees International
Union
Andrew Lichterman
Senior Research Analyst
Western States Legal Foundation
Alison Lingane
Co-Founder
Project Equity
Penn Loh
Lecturer and Director of
Community Practice
Department of Urban and
Environmental Policy and Planning
Tufts University
Michelle Long
Executive Director
Business Alliance for Local
Living Economies
Roberto Lovato
Writer, Visiting Scholar
Center for Latino Policy Research
University of California, Berkeley
Thomas E. Lovejoy
University Professor of
Environmental Science and
Policy
George Mason University
Central Massachusetts Move to Amend
Author, Playwright, Executive Producer
L. Hunter Lovins
President
Natural Capitalism Solutions
Stephanie Luce
Professor of Labor Studies
Joseph S. Murphy Institute for
Worker Education
CUNY School of Professional Studies
Paul Lussier
President
Me2U Media
Lecturer
Yale College
Christopher Mackin
Founder and President
Ownership Associates, Inc.
Jerry Mander
Founder and Distinguished
Fellow
International Forum on
Globalization
Gabriel Mandujano
Founder
Wash Cycle Laundry Inc.
Jane Mansbridge
Adams Professor of Political
Leadership and Democratic
Values
Harvard University
Ben Manski
President
Liberty Tree Foundation
for the Democratic Revolution
Peter Marcuse
Professor Emeritus of Urban
Planning
Columbia University
Abby Martin
Founder
MediaRoots.org
Rania Masri
Associate Director
Asfari Institute for
Civil Society and Citizenship
American University in Beirut
Bob Massie
Minister, Activist, Non-Profit
Executive
Julie Matthaei
Professor of Economics
Wellesley College
Board Member
U.S. Solidarity Economy Network
Co-Coordinator, Boston Area
Solidarity Economy Network
Cornerstone Cohousing
Dick Mazess
Emeritus Professor of
Medical Physics
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Robert W. McChesney
Gutgsell Endowed Professor of
Communication
University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
Heather McCulloch
Manager, Tax Policy Project
Asset Funders Network
Heather McGhee
President
Demos
Bill McKibben
Co-Founder and Senior Advisor
350.org
Gayle McLaughlin
Councilmember and
Two-term Mayor
City of Richmond, California
Repa Mekha
President and CEO
Nexus Community Partners
Pam McMichael
Executive Director
Highlander Research and
Education Center
Zia Mian
Program on Science and Global
Security
Princeton University
Lawrence Mishel
President
Economic Policy Institute
Stacy Mitchell
Director
Community-Scaled Economy
Initiative
Co-Director
Institute for Local Self-Reliance
Author, Playwright, Executive Producer
Anuradha Mittal
Executive Director
The Oakland Institute
Marissa Mommaerts
Communications Manager
Transition US
Yolanda T. Moses
Professor of Anthropology
University of California Riverside
Jamal Mubdi-Bey
Director, Office of Community
Outreach
Sojourner-Douglass College
James Mumm
Staff Director
National People’s Action
Caryn McTighe Musil
Senior Scholar and Director of
Civic Learning and Democracy
Initiatives
Office of the President
Association of American
Colleges and Universities
Ralph Nader
Consumer Advocate, Author,
Former Presidential Candidate
Bruce Nelson
Emeritus Professor of History
Dartmouth College
Jessica Gordon Nembhard
Professor of Community Justice
and Social Economic Development
Director, McNair Post-Baccalau-
reate Achievement Program,
Department of Africana Studies
City University of New York
Thomas Newmark
Co-Founder and Chair
The Carbon Underground
Helena Norberg-Hodge
Director
Local Futures / International
Society for Ecology and Culture
Author
Ancient Futures
Producer
The Economics of Happiness
Richard B. Norgaard
Professor Emeritus of Energy
and Resources
University of California, Berkeley
Bertell Ollman
Professor of Politics
New York University
David W. Orr
Paul Sears Distinguished Pro-
fessor of Environmental Studies
and Politics
Oberlin College
Noel Ortega
New Economy Working Group
Coordinator
Institute for Policy Studies
Richard L. Ottinger
Dean Emeritus
Pace Law School
Thomas Palley
Senior Economic Policy Adviser
AFL-CIO
Research Associate
Economic Policy Institute
Christian Parenti
Faculty, Global Liberal Studies
New York University
Manuel Pastor
Professor of Sociology and
American Studies and Ethnicity
Director, Program for Environ-
mental and Regional Equity
University of Southern California
Raj Patel
Research Professor
Lyndon B. Johnson School of
Public Affairs
University of Texas, Austin
Carole Pateman
Distinguished Professor
Emeritus of Political Science
UCLA
Michael Alden Peck
Co-Founder
1worker1vote.org
David Pellow
Don A. Martindale Professor of
Sociology
University of Minnesota
Antonio Pérez
Secretary-Executive Director
Housing Authority of the City of
Milwaukee
Francisco Perez
Activist
Carlos Pérez de Alejo
Co-Director
Cooperation Texas
Tova Perlmutter
Principal
Engine of Progress
Sarah M. Pike
Director of Partnerships
Common Enterprise
Development Corporation
Frances Fox Piven
Distinguished Professor of
Political Science
The Graduate Center
City University of New York
Brenda Platt
Co-Director
Institute for Local Self-Reliance
Rachel Plattus
Director of Youth and Student
Organizing
New Economy Coalition
Alicia Plerhoples
Associate Professor of Law
Director, Social Enterprise and
Nonprofit Law Clinic
Georgetown University Law
Center
john a. powell
Director, Haas Institute for a Fair
and Inclusive Society
Professor
University of California, Berkeley
Joni Praded
Senior Editor
Chelsea Green Publishing
Vijay Prashad
George and Martha Kellner
Chair in South Asian History
Professor of International
Studies
Trinity College
Will Raap
Founder and Chairman
Gardener’s Supply
Co-Chair
New Economy Coalition
Carolyn Raffensperger
Executive Director
Science and Environmental
Health Network
M.V. Ramana
Program on Science and Global
Security, Princeton University
Kelly Ramirez
Chief Executive Officer
Social Enterprise Greenhouse
Marcus Raskin
Co-Founder and Distinguished
Fellow
Institute for Policy Studies
Paul Raskin
Founding President
Tellus Institute
Dave Reed
Organizer
Fund for Democratic Communities
Robert B. Reich
Chancellor’s Professor of Public
Policy
University of California,
Berkeley
Lauren Ressler
Director of Campus Organizing
Responsible Endowments
Coalition
Anne Reynolds
Executive Director
University of Wisconsin Center
for Cooperatives
Burton Richter
Nobel Laureate (Physics 1976)
Professor Emeritus
Stanford University
Corey Robin
Professor of Political Science
Brooklyn College and the CUNY
Graduate Center
Doria Robinson
Executive Director
Urban Tilth
Belinda Rodriguez
Youth and Student Network
Organizer
New Economy Coalition
Joel Rogers
Sewell-Bascom Professor of
Law, Political Science, Public
Policy and Sociology
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Director
Center on Wisconsin Strategies
Euneika Rogers-Sipp
Founder
Sustainable Rural Regenera-
tive Enterprises for Families
(SURREF)
Richard Rosen
Senior Fellow and Executive
Vice President
Tellus Institute
Heather L. Ross
Visiting Fellow
Resources for the Future
Peter Rugh
Journalist
Vice News
Co-Founder
System Change Not Climate
Change
Jeffrey D. Sachs
Director, Earth Institute
Columbia University
Sonia E. Sachs
Director, Health Programs
Millennium VIllages Project
Maliha Safri
Associate Professor of Economics
Drew University
Rachelle C. Sampson
RH Smith School of Business
University of Maryland, College
Park
Saskia Sassen
Robert S. Lynd Professor of
Sociology
Co-Chair, Committee on Global
Thought
Columbia University
C. Otto Scharmer
Senior Lecturer
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology
Founding Chair
Presencing Institute
Maya Schenwar
Editor-in-Chief
Truthout.org
Juliet Schor
Professor of Sociology
Boston College
Jonathan Schwarz
Senior Editor
The Intercept
David Schweickart
Professor of Philosophy
Loyola University Chicago
D’Artagnan Scorza
Founder and Executive Director
Social Justice Learning Institute
Deborah Scott
Executive Director
Georgia Stand Up
Naoko Shibusawa
Associate Professor of History
and American Studies
Brown University
Aisha Shillingford
Activist
Michael H. Shuman
Author
The Local Economy Solution
William Shutkin
President and CEO
Presidio Graduate School
Nikki Silvestri
Social Innovation Strategist
Alan Smith
Associate Director of
Networked Initiatives
Roosevelt Institute
Marcie Smith
Executive Director
Richard Smith
Research Associate
Institute for Policy Research &
Development
Norman Solomon
Founder and Executive Director
Institute for Public Accuracy
Responsible Endowments Coalition
Saket Soni
Executive Director
National Guestworker Alliance
New Orleans Workers’ Center
for Racial Justice
Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap
National Director
Move to Amend
Jill Stein
Physician
2012 Green Party Presidential
Nominee
Steven Stoll
Associate Professor of History
Fordham University
Oliver Stone
Academy Award-winning
Filmmaker
Sarah Stranahan
Strategic Development Director
Free Speech For People
Lee Stuart
Executive Director
CHUM
Cathy Swain
President and CEO
The Hub of Human Innovation
David Swanson
Director
World Beyond War
Campaign Coordinator
RootsAction.org
Aaron Tanaka
Director
Center for Economic Democracy
Startup Manager
Boston Impact Initiative
Linwood Tauheed
Associate Professor of Economics
University of Missouri, Kansas City
Astra Taylor
Filmmaker
Author
The People’s Platform: Taking
Back Power and Culture in the
Digital Age
J. Phillip Thompson
Professor of Urban Planning and
Politics
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology
Marnie Thompson
Co-Managing Director
Fund for Democratic
Communities
John Tirman
Executive Director
Center for International Studies
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology
Gerald Torres
Jane M.G. Foster Professor
Cornell University Law School
Rodolfo D. Torres
Professor of Urban Planning,
Chicano Studies, Political Sci-
ence, Culture and Theory
University of California, Irvine
Mary Evelyn Tucker
Co-Director
Forum on Religion and Ecology
Yale University
Joe Uehlein
President
Labor Network for Sustainability
Alayne Unterberger
Founder
Florida Institute for
Community Studies
Kabzuag Vaj
Co-Founder and Co-Executive
Director
Freedom Inc.
Juanita Valdez-Cox
Executive Director
La Union del Pueblo Entero
Sarah van Gelder
Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief
YES! Magazine
Carlos L. Velasco
Founder
Velasco Consulting LLC
Director
Fuerza Local Arizona
Peter A. Victor
York University
Stewart Wallis
Executive Director
New Economics Foundation
(London)
Responsible Endowments Coalition
Professor of Environmental Studies
Michael Walzer
Co-Editor (Emeritus)
Dissent Magazine
Cheyenna Layne Weber
Co-Founder
SolidarityNYC
Mark Weisbrot
Co-Director
Center for Economic and Policy
Research
Allen L. White
Vice President and Senior
Fellow
Tellus Institute
Ed Whitfield
Co-Managing Director
Fund for Democratic Communities
Judy Wicks
Co-Founder
BALLE
Author
Good Morning, Beautiful Business
Wendy Willbanks
Wiesner
Founding Board Member
and Treasurer
Partnerships for Affordable
Cohousing
Steven Williams
Executive Director
The Partnership CDC
Thad Williamson
Associate Professor of Lead-
ership Studies and Philosophy,
Politics, Economics and Law
University of Richmond
Billy Wimsatt
Gamechanger Labs
Timothy E. Wirth
Vice Chair
United Nations Foundation
and Better World Fund
Felipe Witchger
Executive Director
Community Purchasing
Alliance Cooperative
Susan Witt
Executive Director
Schumacher Center for a New
Economics
Richard D. Wolff
Democracyatwork.info
Professor Emeritus of
Economics
University of Massachusetts,
Amherst
The New School University
George M. Woodwell
Founder and Director Emeritus
Woods Hole Research Center
L. Randall Wray
Professor of Economics
University of Missouri, Kansas City
Erik Olin Wright
Professor of Sociology
Emily Wurth
Water Program Director
Food and Water Watch
Daphne Wysham
Fellow
Institute for Policy Studies
Vazira Fazila-Yacoobali
Zamindar
Associate Professor of History
Brown University
Kevin Zeese
Co-Director
It’s Our Economy
A project of Popular Resistance
Deidre Zoll
Research Coordinator
Gund Institute for Ecological
Economics
University of Vermont
Signatories are acting in a
personal capacity; affiliations are
for identification
purposes only.
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thenextsystem.org | @thenextsystem
University of Wisconsin, Madison
The Next System Project is an ambitious multi-
year initiative aimed at helping Americans think
boldly about what is required to deal with the
systemic challenges the United States faces now
and in coming decades. Responding to real hunger
for a new way forward, and building on practical
experience with new economic institutions and
approaches being developed in communities across
the country and around the world, we will use the
best research, understanding and strategic thinking
to refine and publicize comprehensive alternative
political-economic models capable of delivering
superior social, economic, and ecological outcomes
and put the central idea of system change, and that
there can be a “next system,” on the map. For more
information, see http://thenextsystem.org or write to
nextsystem@democracycollaborative.org
thenextsystem.org | @thenextsystem
It is possible to build a new and better America
beyond the failed systems of the past and present.
THENEXTSYSTEM.ORG
#WHATSNEXT