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Land and property ownership have colored American politics since the very beginning of our democracy in New England in the 1600s. Broad land ownership challenged the economic and social divisions that prevailed in Europe. It helped foster political equality among white men settlers, because most of them met the property qualification to vote. Land would become a cornerstone of the effort by America’s Founders, such as William Penn, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison, to distribute power across society, which they saw as integral to protecting liberty and democracy.
Today, however, democracy is facing challenges in part because the pathways to real estate ownership are increasingly out of reach. The homeownership rate in the U.S. has dropped from 69% before the 2008 economic crash to roughly 65% today. Even more troubling, the dramatic increase in home prices since the covid-19 pandemic twinned with supply constraints have put the housing market on ice. Over 70% of Americans who planned to buy a home in 2024 could not do so.
These trends are exacerbating economic inequality. They’re also pushing people away from political participation. Scholarly research shows that homeownership enhances the tendency to engage in politics, from participating in city council meetings, to donating to candidates, to turning out in local elections. Deliberative and participatory local democracy of the sort that has a long pedigree in America is withering as a result.
Small-scale farming became a mainstay of the economy in colonial New England. Settlements were initially laid out as fairly compact townships with modest plots of land to enable farmers to support themselves. The public land survey system systematized settlement at the end of the 1700s and stipulated a method for subdividing townships into sections and lots. Land speculators and companies carved up large territories into family-sized plots to sell at affordable prices to the growing ranks of settlers and their…
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