"Democracy in the 21st century has failed to live up to its promise. It is widely noted that democratic governments have grown increasingly detached from the governed and incapable of standing up to the powerful economic interests that tend to dominate everyday life. Indeed, these interests have come to permeate politics itself, appearing to render "rule by the people" a bare ideal, seemingly remote and out of reach. Pervasive and persistent inequalities mark contemporary economies, which, though they may produce a wide range of goods and make effective use of new technologies, nonetheless fail to provide many with adequate livelihoods or dignified conditions of work. Even in societies where multiple sources of gratification and fulfillment are available, the limits of the "private sphere" and the informal contexts of interpersonal relationships leave many people dissatisfied and disempowered, whether because of their inability to realize their goals or develop their capacities, or in virtue of residual forms of oppression, racism, and group hatreds"--