What If They Gave an Election and Everyone Came?

What If They Gave an Election and Everyone Came?

Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward, like many other intellectuals from the 1960s, have moved from anti-electoral positions to an intense interest in the American electoral process. In Poor People’s Movements: Why They Succeed, How They Fail (1977), they argued that protest should “break out” of the confines of electoral procedures. Now they have a more nuanced position: electoral action both undermines and supports collective protest. In their latest book, Why A...