Crowdfunding and the Democratization of Finance

Crowdfunding and the Democratization of Finance PDF Author: Mark Davis
Publisher: Policy Press
ISBN: 1529216745
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 182

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Book Description
Do you know where your money is? More importantly, do you know what your money is doing? Most of us feel confident that we know what money is. But few of us feel confident in taking responsibility for what our money does. We hand over the power of money to banks and mainstream finance with real, often damaging, consequences for people and planet. A unique collaboration between an academic and a practitioner, this book tells the story of money, from ancient Athens to the Bitcoin revolution, to explain how crowdfunding is the way for people to reclaim the power of their money in pursuit of a fairer and greener society.

Crowdfunding and the Democratization of Finance

Crowdfunding and the Democratization of Finance PDF Author: Mark Davis
Publisher: Policy Press
ISBN: 1529216745
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 182

Get Book Here

Book Description
Do you know where your money is? More importantly, do you know what your money is doing? Most of us feel confident that we know what money is. But few of us feel confident in taking responsibility for what our money does. We hand over the power of money to banks and mainstream finance with real, often damaging, consequences for people and planet. A unique collaboration between an academic and a practitioner, this book tells the story of money, from ancient Athens to the Bitcoin revolution, to explain how crowdfunding is the way for people to reclaim the power of their money in pursuit of a fairer and greener society.

Democratizing Finance

Democratizing Finance PDF Author: Fred Block
Publisher: Verso Books
ISBN: 1839762675
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
What if our financial system were organized to the benefit of the many rather than simply empowering the few? Robert Hockett and Fred Block argue that an entirely different financial system is both desirable and possible. They outline concrete steps that could get us there. Financial systems move the worlds savings from investment to investment, chasing the highest rates of return. They run on profit. But what if investment went to the enterprises or institutions that provided things that the majority of people would prioritize? Democratizing Finance includes six responses that seek to amend, elaborate, and challenge the arguments developed by Hockett and Block. Some of the core arguments put forward by other contributors include calls for the rapid elimination of private financial entities, the dilemmas of the politics associated with financial reforms, and the fate of parallel proposals advanced in the US in the 1930s.

Funding Democratization

Funding Democratization PDF Author: Milton Konvitz
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351518283
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
Democracy is a fine political system, but an expensive economic venture. Political parties and election campaigns cost money. Where does the money come from and at what sacrifice? Issues connected with political finance are significant but often neglected aspects of the process of democratization. Funding Democratization examines how money and politics interact in emerging democracies. The contributors investigate the funding of political parties in early North America, financial uncertainties of party formation in European countries, funding of democratization in new democracies, and the influence of funding on contenders for power. They also address the nature of political competition in countries that are seeking to embrace, often for the first time, the rules of democracy. They question in what ways politicians can help make democracy affordable. The volume compares important democratizing countries, such as Russia, Brazil, South Africa, Spain, and the regions of East Asia and East/Central Europe. It also investigates the lessons that emerging democracies can learn from the history of political finance in today's more established democracies. Funding Democratization will be of interest to political scientists and specialists in international social and political development.

Democratizing Finance

Democratizing Finance PDF Author: Clifford N. Rosenthal
Publisher: FriesenPress
ISBN: 1525536621
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 544

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Book Description
Decades before Occupy Wall Street challenged the American financial system, activists began organizing alternatives to provide capital to “unbankable” communities and the poor. With roots in the civil rights, anti-poverty, and other progressive movements, they brought little training in finance. They formed nonprofit loan funds, credit unions, and even a new bank—organizations that by 1992 became known as “community development financial institutions,” or CDFIs. By melding their vision with that of President Clinton, CDFIs grew from church basements and kitchen tables to number more than 1,000 institutions with billions of dollars of capital. They have helped transform community development by providing credit and financial services across the United States, from inner cities to Native American reservations. Democratizing Finance traces the roots of community development finance over two centuries, a history that runs from Benjamin Franklin, through an ill-starred bank for African American veterans of the Civil War, the birth of the credit union movement, and the War on Poverty. Drawn from hundreds of interviews with CDFI leaders, presidential archives, and congressional testimony, Democratizing Finance provides an insider view of an extraordinary public policy success. Democratizing Finance is a unique resource for practitioners, policymakers, researchers, and social investors.

Democracy Declined

Democracy Declined PDF Author: Mallory E. SoRelle
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022671182X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 302

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Book Description
As Elizabeth Warren memorably wrote, “It is impossible to buy a toaster that has a one-in-five chance of bursting into flames and burning down your house. But it is possible to refinance an existing home with a mortgage that has the same one-in-five chance of putting the family out on the street.” More than a century after the government embraced credit to fuel the American economy, consumer financial protections in the increasingly complex financial system still place the onus on individuals to sift through fine print for assurance that they are not vulnerable to predatory lending and other pitfalls of consumer financing and growing debt. In Democracy Declined, Mallory E. SoRelle argues that the failure of federal policy makers to curb risky practices can be explained by the evolution of consumer finance policies aimed at encouraging easy credit in part by foregoing more stringent regulation. Furthermore, SoRelle explains how angry borrowers’ experiences with these policies teach them to focus their attention primarily on banks and lenders instead of demanding that lawmakers address predatory behavior. As a result, advocacy groups have been mostly unsuccessful in mobilizing borrowers in support of stronger consumer financial protections. The absence of safeguards on consumer financing is particularly dangerous because the consequences extend well beyond harm to individuals—they threaten the stability of entire economies. SoRelle identifies pathways to mitigate these potentially disastrous consequences through greater public participation.

Funding Democratization

Funding Democratization PDF Author: Peter J. Burnell
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 9780719050336
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 270

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Book Description
Comprises 11 contributions exploring issues in the political finances of emerging democracies. The contributors look at funding issues in Brazil, Russia, South Africa, Spain, and the regions of east Asia and east-central Europe. Several contributors also explore what can be learned from the history of political finance in the established democracies of western Europe and North America. Of interest to students of political parties, electoral politics and democratization studies, as well as researchers and specialist observers of the countries and systems covered. Distributed by St. Martin's Press. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Funding Virtue

Funding Virtue PDF Author: Marina Ottaway
Publisher: Carnegie Endowment
ISBN: 0870031783
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
The United States and many other international donors have embraced civil-society aid as a key tool of democracy promotion. This collection of essays analyzes civil-society aid in five regions - South Africa, the Philippines, Peru, Egypt and Romania - focusing on crucial issues and dilemmas.

Law and the Wealth of Nations

Law and the Wealth of Nations PDF Author: Tamara Lothian
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 9780231174671
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description
Tamara Lothian shows a path to the reconstruction of the economy in the service of both growth and inclusion that would reignite economic growth by democratizing the market. Law and the Wealth of Nations offers a progressive approach to the supply side of the economy and proposes innovation in our fundamental economic arrangements.

The Third Wave

The Third Wave PDF Author: Samuel P. Huntington
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 0806186046
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description
Between 1974 and 1990 more than thirty countries in southern Europe, Latin America, East Asia, and Eastern Europe shifted from authoritarian to democratic systems of government. This global democratic revolution is probably the most important political trend in the late twentieth century. In The Third Wave, Samuel P. Huntington analyzes the causes and nature of these democratic transitions, evaluates the prospects for stability of the new democracies, and explores the possibility of more countries becoming democratic. The recent transitions, he argues, are the third major wave of democratization in the modem world. Each of the two previous waves was followed by a reverse wave in which some countries shifted back to authoritarian government. Using concrete examples, empirical evidence, and insightful analysis, Huntington provides neither a theory nor a history of the third wave, but an explanation of why and how it occurred. Factors responsible for the democratic trend include the legitimacy dilemmas of authoritarian regimes; economic and social development; the changed role of the Catholic Church; the impact of the United States, the European Community, and the Soviet Union; and the "snowballing" phenomenon: change in one country stimulating change in others. Five key elite groups within and outside the nondemocratic regime played roles in shaping the various ways democratization occurred. Compromise was key to all democratizations, and elections and nonviolent tactics also were central. New democracies must deal with the "torturer problem" and the "praetorian problem" and attempt to develop democratic values and processes. Disillusionment with democracy, Huntington argues, is necessary to consolidating democracy. He concludes the book with an analysis of the political, economic, and cultural factors that will decide whether or not the third wave continues. Several "Guidelines for Democratizers" offer specific, practical suggestions for initiating and carrying out reform. Huntington's emphasis on practical application makes this book a valuable tool for anyone engaged in the democratization process. At this volatile time in history, Huntington's assessment of the processes of democratization is indispensable to understanding the future of democracy in the world.

The Democratization of Artificial Intelligence

The Democratization of Artificial Intelligence PDF Author: Andreas Sudmann
Publisher: transcript Verlag
ISBN: 3839447194
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 335

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Book Description
After a long time of neglect, Artificial Intelligence is once again at the center of most of our political, economic, and socio-cultural debates. Recent advances in the field of Artifical Neural Networks have led to a renaissance of dystopian and utopian speculations on an AI-rendered future. Algorithmic technologies are deployed for identifying potential terrorists through vast surveillance networks, for producing sentencing guidelines and recidivism risk profiles in criminal justice systems, for demographic and psychographic targeting of bodies for advertising or propaganda, and more generally for automating the analysis of language, text, and images. Against this background, the aim of this book is to discuss the heterogenous conditions, implications, and effects of modern AI and Internet technologies in terms of their political dimension: What does it mean to critically investigate efforts of net politics in the age of machine learning algorithms?