The Deeper Inquiry

The political economy of transformational funding has been analyzed most directly by the scholar-practitioners who have attempted it. Marjorie Kelly's The Divine Right of Capital (2001) and Owning Our Future (2012) provide the most accessible entry into the literature on ownership structures and their relationship to institutional mission. Her distinction between extractive ownership (in which the purpose of the enterprise is to maximize returns to owners) and generative ownership (in which the purpose is to generate value for stakeholders, communities, and future generations) maps directly onto the distinction between capital compatible and incompatible with Providence's constitutional principles.

The patient capital literature, which has developed substantially since the financial crisis of 2008, examines the conditions under which long-horizon capital commitments can be sustained. Michael Mazzucato's The Entrepreneurial State (2013) and Mission Economy (2021) argue that transformational infrastructure has historically depended on state capital precisely because state capital is the only form that routinely extends to the timeframes transformational infrastructure requires. Her analysis has significant implications for Providence's funding strategy: the question of whether and how state capital can be accessed without creating the governance dependencies that would compromise constitutional independence is one of the most important strategic questions the institution will face.

The community finance literature — examining community development financial institutions, credit unions, community land trusts, and related structures — provides examples of institutions that have successfully navigated the funding paradox at smaller scale. Gar Alperovitz's work, particularly America Beyond Capitalism (2005) and What Then Must We Do? (2013), situates these structures within a broader analysis of how economic alternatives to extractive capitalism develop and sustain themselves over time. The Institute for Local Self-Reliance's analysis of community financial institutions provides more granular documentation of what has worked and what has not.