Frances Moore Lappé and Anna Lappé founded the Small Planet Institute in 2001 to help define, articulate, and further an historic transition: a worldwide shift from the dominant, failing notion of democracy as a set of fixed institutions toward democracy understood as a way of life, a culture in which the values of inclusion, fairness and mutual accountability infuse all dimensions of public life. On every continent, people are creating such “living democracies” as they discover their power to remake societal rules and norms to serve their widely shared values. At the Institute we further this historic transition through collaborative public education efforts with colleagues worldwide and through our own books, articles, speeches, and other media.