Radical Middle Newsletter
Idealism Without Illusions

 

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"Mark's [work] is refreshingly short on [rhetoric] and long on real ideas, programs and organizations you can support."
-- Jay Dean, The Radical Centrist blog, February 2005

originally 2004; last updated February 2016

100 Great Radical Centrist
Political Groups and Organizations

A. WELCOME FROM EDITOR MARK SATIN

Welcome to our Great Radical Middle Political Organizations page!  If you’re ever depressed about the state of the world, just scroll through these sites and I guarantee things will seem brighter.

“Radical middle" aka "radical centrist" organizations are modest enough to learn from all political perspectives – and bold enough to pursue genuine solutions to the most fundamental problems we face.  A more through definition can be found in my book Radical Middle: The Politics We Need Now (Basic Books, 2004).

We have confined ourselves here to 10 organizations each in 10 issue areas.  All are indeed “great” in one way or another.  Most were discussed or mentioned in my Washington, DC-based national political newsletters New Options (1983 – 1992) and Radical Middle (1999 – 2009).  Others have been added since 2009.

Each organization is linked to its official website.  I hope you will not only enjoy reading about them, but seek to get involved in some of them. – M.S.

 

B.  ONE HUNDRED GREAT ONES

1. DIALOGUE AND PROCESS

Center for Nonviolent Communication

Everyday Democracy

Listening Project: Community Listening, Empowerment & Change

Mediators Foundation

National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation

National Issues Forums

Public Conversations Project

Search for Common Ground

Viewpoint Learning: Insight Through Dialogue

World Café: Shaping Our Future Through Conversations That Matter

 

2. GOVERNMENT AND GOVERNANCE

Center for Wise Democracy

Citizens for Self-Governance

Co-Intelligence Institute

Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget

Deliberative Democracy Consortium

FairVote: For a More Perfect Union

Government Accountability Project

Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership

Institute for Culrural Evolution

Transparency International

 

3. ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT

Environmental Defense Fund

Friends of the Earth

Greenpeace International

League of Conservation Voters

National Trust for Historic Preservation

Natural Resources Defense Council

Nature Conservancy

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

Sierra Club

World Wildlife Fund

 

4. BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS

Ceres: Mobilizing Business Leadership for a Sustainable World

CORE Coalition: Putting People & the Planet at the Core of Business

Democracy Collaborative: Building Community wealth

Ethical Markets: Your Gateway to Cleaner, Greener 21st Century Economies

US/SIF: The Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investing

Future 500: Finding Common Ground Between Uncommon Allies

National Center for Employee Ownership

Robert Schalkenbach Foundation: Publisher of Henry George, Advocate for Economic Justice

Society for Organizational Learning North America

U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network

 

5. EDUCATION AND YOUTH

Challenge Day

Character Education Project

Coalition of Essential Schools

Harlem Children’s Zone: A National Model for Breaking the Cycle of Poverty

Inner Resilience Program

National Association for Gifted Children

National Council on Teacher Quality

PassageWorks: Engaged Teaching and Learning

Prepare Tomorrow’s Parents

Zero to Three

 

6. HEALTH AND HEALTH CARE

Alliance for Biking and Walking

Association for Humanistic Psychology

Center for Science in the Public Interest

Consumer Federation of America

Drug Policy Alliance

Healthcare-NOW!

Healthy Communities Institute

Partnership for Prevention

Physicians for a National Health Program

Public Health Institute

 

7. SOCIETY AND FUURES

Alternative Futures Associates, formerly Institute for Alternative Futures

Center for Neighborhood Technology

Cutting Edge Law: The Integrative Law Movement

Foresight Canada

International Network on Therapeutic Jurisprudence

Long Now Foundation

National Civic League

National Economic & Social Rights Initiative

Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics

World Future Society

 

8. PEACE AND WORLD ORDER

Albert Einstein Institution: Advancing Freedom Through Nonviolent Action

Amnesty International

Citizens for Global Solutions, formerly World Federalists

Cure Violence

Human Rights Watch

International Crisis Group

Peace Action, formerly SANE-Freeze

Project on Defense Alternatives

Union of Concerned Scientists

United Nations Association of the USA

 

9. GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT

Acumen: Changing the Way the World Tackles Poverty

Ashoka: Innovators for the Public

BRAC: Empowering the Poor

Cultural Survival

Development Group for Alternative Policies

Educate Girls Globally

Landesa: Rural Development Institute

Microcredit Summit Campaign

Partners in Health

Population Connection, formerly Zero Population Growth

 

10. MOVEMENT STRATEGY AND ORGANIZING

Bridge Alliance: A Transpartisan Community

Center for a New American Dream

Center for Community Change

Centrist Project

Earth Charter Initiative

Green America: Growing the Green Economy

NetAge: Virtual Teams, Networks, and Collaboration

No Labels

RESULTS

Shift Network: Accelerating the Next Evolution

 

BONUS SECTION #1: 10 PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS THAT MERIT YOUR INVOLVEMENT

American Association for the Advancement of Science

American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy

American Planning Association: Making Great Communities Happen

American Political Science Association

American Public Health Association

American Wind Energy Association

Business Alliance for Local Living Economies

Section of Dispute Resolution of the American Bar Association

Society for Humanistic Psychology of the American Psychological Association

World History Association of the American Historical Association

 

BONUS SECTION #2:  15 GREAT RADICAL CENTRIST THINK TANKS

The people listed below are among the principal founders of or actors in these research institutes.

Breakthtough Institute – Ted Nordhaus & Michael Shellenberger

Center for Global Development – Nancy Birdsall

Centre Forum (Britain) – Paul Marshall

Communitarian Network – Amitai Etzioni

Creative Class Group – Richard Florida

Demos (Britain) – Claudia Wood

Institute for the Emerging Wisdom Culture – Paul Ray

Kroc Institute for International Peace Stiudies – David Cortright & John Paul Lederach

New America Foundation – Michael Lind & Anne-Marie Slaughter

Program on Negotiation – Robert Mnookin & William Ury

Progressive Policy Institute – Will Marshall

Rocky Mountain Institute – Amory Lovins & Hunter Lovins

Rodale Institute – Robert Rodale

Tellus Institute – Paul Raskin

World Academy of Art and Science – Walter Truett Anderson

 

C.  STILL NOT SATISFIED?        

See our page on Great Radical Centrist Political Blogs.

See Appendix C in the “40th Anniversary Edition” of my book New Age Politics (Lorian Press, 2015).  It lists “100 New Age-relevant Political Organizations,” some of them more counter-cultural or  militant than those listed here.  (I think of radical middle politics as occupying one end of the transformational political spectrum, and New Age politics as occupying the other.)

ABOUT THE RADICAL MIDDLE CONCEPT

WHY "Radical Middle"?

WIKIPEDIA Weighs In

50 Thinkers and Activists DESCRIBE the Radical Middle 

50 Best Radical Middle BOOKS of the '00s

GREAT RADICAL MIDDLE  GROUPS AND BLOGS:

100 Great Radical Centrist GROUPS and  Organizations

25 Great Radical Centrist BLOGS

SOME PRIOR RADICAL MIDDLE INITIATIVES:

Generational Equity and Communitarian platforms 1990s

First U.S. Green Party gatherings, 1987 - 1990

Green Party's "Ten Key Values" statement, 1984

New World Alliance, 1979 - 1983

PDF of  the Alliance's "Transformation Platform," 1981

SOME RADICAL MIDDLE LESSONS:

What the Draft Resistance Movement Taught Me

What the Civil Rights Movement Taught Me

SOME PRIOR  WRITINGS BY MARK SATIN:

New Options Newsletter, 1984-1992 (includes back issue PDFs!)

New Age Politics: Healing Self and Society, 1976,  1978 (includes 1976 text PDF!)

OTHER
PRIOR   RADICAL MIDDLE TEXTS:

50 Best "Third Way" Books of the 1990s

25 Best "Transformational" Books of the 1980s

25 Best "New Age Politics" Books of the 1970s

NOT JUST RADICAL MIDDLE:

10 Best U.S. Political NOVELS

50 Current Political IDEOLOGIES

50 Current Political  MANIFESTOS