This event is hosted by the National Civic League.

Our President, Joe Guinan, will take part in the webinar Democracy and the Economy: Rethinking Civic Participation.

Joe will be in conversation with Dr Leonard Brock (Senior Vice President for Systems Change and Policy at CFLeads) and Celina Su (Professor at the City University of New York), exploring the relationship between economic policy and democratic participation.

📅 Thursday, June 18

🕓 1pm ET | 12 pm CT | 11am MT | 10am PT

Many conversations about civic engagement focus on communication, outreach, and participation processes. But democracy is shaped just as powerfully by economic decisions.

Every day, local governments make decisions about procurement, ownership, zoning, development, budgeting, workforce policy, and public investment. These decisions influence economic opportunity, stability, trust, and ultimately people’s ability to participate in civic life.

At the same time, many of today’s democratic challenges, including declining trust, political disengagement, civic apathy, and polarization, are deeply connected to broader economic realities, including rising costs of living, housing insecurity, regional economic decline, wage inequality, debt burdens, unemployment, and economic precarity.

This webinar explores the relationship between economic policy and democratic participation. Bringing together leading practitioners and scholars working at the intersection of civic engagement, economic mobility, participatory governance, and community wealth building, the conversation will examine how local governments can strengthen democracy through economic decision-making.

Through case studies and practical examples, panelists will explore how economic institutions shape civic participation, trust, and community resilience, and what local governments can do differently to build stronger democratic systems.