Steven Hill
Photo: Annette Hornischer

Journalist; and Senior Fellow, New America Foundation, Washington, DC

Holtzbrinck Fellow - Class of Spring 2016

Steven Hill is a political writer, columnist, and lecturer with two decades of experience in public policy. A co-founder of FairVote/Center for Voting and Democracy and former director of the political reform program at the New America Foundation, he is widely known for his advocacy of proportional representation, public financing of election campaigns, and the president’s election by national popular vote. Hill’s op-eds and articles have been published in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Politico, Financial Times, Guardian, Le Monde, Die Zeit, IP Journal, and on Al Jazeera. He is the author of four books, among them Europe’s Promise: Why the European Way Is the Best Hope in an Insecure Age (2010) and Fixing Elections: The Failure of America’s Winner Take All Politics (2003).

Project Description

Troubled Future: How the Sharing Economy and Freelance Society Are Threatening Workers’ Livelihoods, and What We Can Do about It

At the Academy, Hill worked on his project “Troubled Future: How the Sharing Economy and Freelance Society are Threatening Workers’ Livelihoods, and What We Can Do About It.” In the US, he explains, the sharing economy is accelerating toward a “freelance society,” wherein tens of millions of workers will find themselves with no regular jobs or steady work, lower pay, and a weaker safety net. Hill asks if the sharing economy might work better in a place like Germany, where the welfare state is more developed and a stronger tradition of labor unions and government regulation has fostered more broadly shared prosperity. A close observer of political institutions and practices in Europe since the 1990s, Hill will propose policy-based solutions and reforms that would encourage American economic policymakers to adapt to this new reality.

Academy Activities

27 Feb 16

Fellow Spotlight: Steven Hill

Steven Hill is a political writer, columnist, and lecturer with two decades of experience in public policy. A co-founder of FairVote/Center for Voting and Democracy and former director of the political reform program at the New America Foundation, he is widely known for his advocacy of proportional ...

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12 May 16

The Future of Work

In the United States, the sharing economy is accelerating toward a “freelance society,” explains journalist and spring 2016 Holtzbrinck Fellow Steven Hill, wherein tens of millions of workers will find themselves with no regular jobs or steady work, lower pay, and a weaker safety net. Hill asked ...

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