Just Giving Reich, Rob
2018, 20181120, 2018-11-20
eBook
The troubling ethics and politics of philanthropy
Is philanthropy, by its very nature, a threat to today's democracy? Though we may laud wealthy individuals who give away their money for society's ...benefit, Just Giving shows how such generosity not only isn't the unassailable good we think it to be but might also undermine democratic values and set back aspirations of justice. Big philanthropy is often an exercise of power, the conversion of private assets into public influence. And it is a form of power that is largely unaccountable, often perpetual, and lavishly tax-advantaged. The affluent-and their foundations-reap vast benefits even as they influence policy without accountability. And small philanthropy, or ordinary charitable giving, can be problematic as well. Charity, it turns out, does surprisingly little to provide for those in need and sometimes worsens inequality.
These outcomes are shaped by the policies that define and structure philanthropy. When, how much, and to whom people give is influenced by laws governing everything from the creation of foundations and nonprofits to generous tax exemptions for donations of money and property. Rob Reich asks: What attitude and what policies should democracies have concerning individuals who give money away for public purposes? Philanthropy currently fails democracy in many ways, but Reich argues that it can be redeemed. Differentiating between individual philanthropy and private foundations, the aims of mass giving should be the decentralization of power in the production of public goods, such as the arts, education, and science. For foundations, the goal should be what Reich terms "discovery," or long-time-horizon innovations that enhance democratic experimentalism. Philanthropy, when properly structured, can play a crucial role in supporting a strong liberal democracy.
Just Giving investigates the ethical and political dimensions of philanthropy and considers how giving might better support democratic values and promote justice.
People have been giving away their money, property, and time to others for millennia. What's novel about the contemporary practice of philanthropy is the availability of tax incentives to give money ...away. Such incentives are built into tax systems in nearly all developed and many developing democracies. In this sense, philanthropy is not an invention of the state but ought to be viewed today as an artifact of the state. This paper specifies and assesses three possible justifications for the existence of tax incentives for charitable giving, identifies a distinctive role for philanthropy in democracies, and argues for a fundamental redesign of the current legal framework governing philanthropy. Empirically, giving to assist the needy and care for strangers is an uncommon form of giving in the United States. Normatively, it is but one potential justification for philanthropy.
This article focuses on a particular and peculiar philanthropic entity: the private foundation. Analogues of the contemporary philanthropic foundation can be found in antiquity, when endowments ...funded the creation and sustenance of public monuments and educational institutions, including Plato's Academy. However, the modern grant-making foundation in which private assets are set aside in a perpetual, donor-directed, tax-advantaged endowment with a fraction of the assets distributed annually for a public purpose is a recent institutional form, distinctly American, and no older than the early 20th century. By definition, it is a plutocratic entity representing the legal permission--indeed, tax-subsidized invitation--for large wealth to play a consequential role in public life. What could confer legitimacy on such an entity in a democratic society?
Zusammenfassung
Stiftungen sind nur bedingt rechenschaftspflichtig, profitieren von großzügigen Steuervergünstigungen, sind zeitlich unbegrenzt und nur dem Stifterwillen verpflichtet. Insgesamt ...stellen sie damit eine institutionelle Kuriosität dar, die plutokratische Tendenzen in demokratischen Gesellschaften befördert. Aufgrund ihrer spezifischen Struktur sind sie jedoch auch dazu geeignet, zu einem Experimentierfeld für langfristig angelegte sozialpolitische Innovationen zu werden. Langfristig könnte dies Stiftungen zu mehr demokratischer Legitimität verhelfen.
It is often said that Americans are the world's most generous citizens. The claim is based upon the large amount of money given away every year by Americans, approximately $315 billion in 2012, a ...figure that, except during recessions, has risen more or less constantly for the past 40 years. Philanthropy appears to be more about the pursuit of one's own projects, a mechanism for the expression of one's values or preferences rather than a mechanism for redistribution or relief for the poor. Social scientists have studied the empirical landscape of charity in the US with some care, but relatively little has been written about fundamental normative questions concerning the purpose of charitable giving in democratic societies. It is useful to recall that the practice of philanthropy is ancient. What is novel about the contemporary practice of philanthropy is the availability of tax incentives. Adapted from the source document.
Classical liberals and libertarians assign fundamental importance to economic liberties and champion bottom-up approaches to social welfare. They point to the significance, even superiority, of ...philanthropy in providing for society's most disadvantaged citizens, and they defend rights of inheritance and intergenerational transmission of wealth. So one might think that John Tomasi's "market democracy" would defend gift giving and philanthropy. But market democracy leaves far less room than might be thought for an enthusiastic defense of gift giving and philanthropy, and this distances market democracy more than we might expect from the territory of classical liberalism and libertarianism.
Education is a contested topic, and not just politically. For years scholars have approached it from two different points of view: one empirical, focused on explanations for student and school ...success and failure, and the other philosophical, focused on education's value and purpose within the larger society. Rarely have these separate approaches been brought into the same conversation. Education, Justice, and Democracy does just that, offering an intensive discussion by highly respected scholars across empirical and philosophical disciplines. The contributors explore how the institutions and practices of education can support democracy, by creating the conditions for equal citizenship and egalitarian empowerment, and how they can advance justice, by securing social mobility and cultivating the talents and interests of every individual. Then the authors evaluate constraints on achieving the goals of democracy and justice in the educational arena and identify strategies that we can employ to work through or around those constraints. More than a thorough compendium on a timely and contested topic, Education, Justice, and Democracy exhibits an entirely new, more deeply composed way of thinking about education as a whole and its importance to a good society.
The practice of philanthropy is as old as humanity. People have been giving away their money, property, and time to others for millennia.
The classic work of French sociologist Marcel Mauss ...illuminated the ubiquity of gift giving in archaic or primitive societies. Mauss identified what he called the gift exchange, a form of exchange contrasted with market exchange. Gift exchange was not merely ubiquitous; Mauss argued that gift giving revealed the deeper structure of social relations and that gifts were embedded within a morality of obligation and reciprocity. Moral norms about giving, receiving, and reciprocating informed gift economies, which in
