Democracy Theme Park

  • Knowledge is Power! (The Strategy-Optional Approach)

    Wow, I feel more powerful already.

  • Why There Aren’t Any Jokes About Regulatory Agencies

    OK, here’s a joke about a regulatory agency, as told by the corporate manager of a big polluting factory. He says… So, I’m in my office one day and the Man from EPA comes in and slams down a huge stack of papers, saying—You’ve got 22,221 violations, and you better do something about them by…

  • Groundhog Day for Obamacare: Back to the Supremes

    Like small-town mayors across the nation on Groundhog Day, the Supreme Court will get to make the call on whether Obamacare casts a shadow. The Affordable Care Act (ACA, aka Obamacare) is again on its way to the Court for further review, as they say in the NFL. Its future is on the line, but…

  • Let’s Get Smart About ALEC

    Gather a bundle of your inkiest exclamation points to put at the end of the next sentence. An outfit called ALEC, funded by wealthy right-wing ideologues, has put together a collection of model laws that they like, and is trying to get legislatures to pass them!!!!!

  • Making a Federal Case Out of It

    “Don’t make a federal case out of it.” I used the phrase countless times without understanding its origin. But it turns out it’s full right up to the post-hoc-ergo-propter-hoc with historical significance: lessons about corporations, democracy and local control—what you might call community rights. Take the train-hits-cow cases. Railroads began a rapid expansion in the…

  • A Corporate Anthropologist Walks Into a Blog…

    There are two kinds of corporate anthropologists. First, the kind that works for corporations and gets paid. I’m the other kind. The first kind works for and with corporations to increase worker productivity, advise what color greeting card to send a Chinese executive, or figure out how to sell personal hygiene products to Mayan grandmothers.…

  • Is Citizens United Focus a Good Use of Our Time? (2014)

    Such a comforting thought—that overturning a single court case can resolve some of society’s biggest problems. With Citizens United, the idea seems to be that huge strides could be made by reversing it, thereby “getting the money out of” elections. It’s our current version of the “silver bullet” myth of old. Kind of like thinking…

  • Frackin’ Keystone

    Gotcha. There, I did it. Used two of the hottest current keywords to draw you in, and here you are. Thanks for visiting, I’ll make it worth your while. They’re but two buzz words in a long line — longer than the trains stretching to the horizon, carrying crude (very crude) oil, frack sand, and…

  • Ward Morehouse (1929-2012): A Remembrance

    When I first met Ward Morehouse in May 1995 at a weekend “Rethinking the Corporation” retreat in Wisconsin’s “driftless” region—he considered Wisconsin his “old stompin’ ground”–he asked to see my just-published first book. Returning the book the next morning, he made a few trenchant remarks that left no doubt that he had read the whole…

  • Democracy Theme Park – An Introduction

    So you want to change the world? That’s great. So do I. In fact, I’ve been working on trying to change things, from stopping lignite strip mining in Texas to creating urban gardens in Madison, Wisconsin, for the past forty years. Along the way, I’ve seen campaigns to change this or that swept into what…

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Democracy Theme Park

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Jane Anne Morris