Marjorie Kelly is Distinguished Senior Fellow with The Democracy Collaborative, and the author of Wealth Supremacy: How the Extractive Economy and the Biased Rules of Capitalism Drive Today’s Crises (Berrett-Kohler, September 2023). Her previous books include The Making of a Democratic Economy (co-authored with Ted Howard), Owning Our Future: The Emerging Ownership Revolution, and The Divine Right of Capital. Kelly has for years been a thought leader in next generation enterprise design, employee ownership, impact investing, and the building of a community-rooted democratic economy. Previously she was a Fellow at the Tellus Institute and cofounder/president of Business Ethics magazine.
Recent Publications
In a democratic society founded on the truth that all persons are created equal, we have permitted an economic system based on the contrary principle that wealthy persons matter more than others. It’s no accident the wealthy have privileged access to politics, the justice system, corporate governance, and more. That’s why in Wealth Supremacy, Marjorie Kelly argues we need a new system—beyond capitalism and socialism. Learn more.
“Marjorie Kelly has the rare ability to combine her decades of business-insider insight with the imagination and conviction to reinvent the future. If you want to understand the economy we’ve inherited and create an economy worth bequeathing to our children – read this book.”
–Kate Raworth, author of Doughnut Economics
The Making of a Democratic Economy
The Making of a Democratic Economy, co-authored with Ted Howard, is a clarion call for a movement ready to get serious about transforming our economic system. Illuminating the principles of a democratic economy through the stories of on-the-ground community wealth builders and their unlikely accomplices in the halls of institutional power, this book is a must-read for everyone concerned with how we win the fight for an economy that’s equitable, not extractive.
“It’s not enough to imagine another world is possible, we need to feel and taste it. Kelly and Howard give us the concrete stories we need to truly believe in this new world.”
—Naomi Klein, author of No Is Not Enough, This Changes Everything, and No Logo
More from Marjorie Kelly
Well Being Alliance (WEALL): Building an Economy for Life: The Great Ownership Transition (February 6, 2024).
Fast Company: Investors are raking in profits by privatizing water. Everyone else is paying the price (September 11, 2023).
Impact Alpha: Challenging wealth supremacy to realize the dream of systemic change (September 6, 2023).
Fast Company: Is private equity joining–or co-opting–the employee ownership movement (May 19, 2022).
Stanford Social Innovation Review: The Case for Investing in Employee Ownership (January 3, 2022).
Impact Alpha: These 12 impact funds are catalyzing transitions to employee ownership (March 18, 2021).
Fast Company: Scaling up employee ownership is key to an equitable economic recovery (March 4, 2021).
Next City: Local Economy Preservation Funds: A Plan to Save Local Businesses and Create Broad Prosperity (May 13, 2020).
The Hill: The profit maximizing corporate model must evolve (August 19, 2020).