Critics say that big-time donors wield too much power over their fellow-citizens and perpetuate social inequality. Are they right?
Saunders-Hastings repeatedly insists that democracy is superior to philanthropy as a way of addressing society’s needs. If you’re used to thinking that our democratic system is in bad shape, that can sound jarring. But she’s working in the tradition of what philosophers call “ideal theory”; the aim is to sketch out what a good system would be, assuming that everyone fully complied with its rules.
Saunders-Hastings also cautions against assuming that philanthropy is really separate from government. In the nineteen-nineties, the political scientist Theda Skocpol dug up historical evidence demonstrating that, even before the Civil War, many aid organizations were national rather than local, and were vigorous political participants, lobbying to secure public benefits for their members. Saunders-Hastings points out that philanthropy benefits greatly from favorable governmental treatment.
Although Saunders-Hastings doesn’t offer a set of rules for morally acceptable philanthropy, they can be inferred from her general principles. Small philanthropy is better than big philanthropy, because it doesn’t invite the same power disparities. The collection plate is probably a safe bet, as are secular organizations in your own community.
Only a few well-known philanthropists come in for praise from Saunders-Hastings. One is Julius Rosenwald, the Sears, Roebuck magnate, who funded nearly five thousand schools for Black students in the South during the height of the Jim Crow era. In this case, it was O.K. for Rosenwald to provide what should have been a state function—giving these students an education—because the state had failed to do so in any meaningful way.
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