Leaders and the Work of Democracy

Abstract

The community organizing tradition in the U.S. and elsewhere sees itself as providing local schools of democracy, where leaders learn about power at the local level and build their capacity to act. Leaders in these organizations are thus directly involved in local democratic practice and in efforts to make local governments and public officials more accountable to their communities. What do leaders learn about democracy as they do this important work? What can the rest of us learn about the practice of democracy from these key leaders?

This paper is based on more than thirty qualitative interviews conducted in 2020 and 2021 with local leaders of broad-based community organizations from the same national network. The paper analyzes these leaders’ responses to questions about how their work relates to democracy and politics and how the political circumstances of the pandemic and of ongoing structural racism and injustice shaped their views of their work. Leaders discussed their ideas about power and democracy and their faith in the organizing work they were doing. We argue that leaders in community organizing in the United States have much to contribute to our understanding of the ongoing work of defending and practicing democracy.