MIC Book Talk: Democracy in Power by Sandeep Vaheesan
Event Summary
Join the Media, Inequality & Change Center, the Penn Program on Regulation, and the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy for this talk from Sandeep Vaheesan on his new book “Democracy in Power: A History of Electrification in the United States.”
About the Book
Until the 1930s, financial interests dominated electrical power in the United States. That changed with President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal which restructured the industry. The government expanded public ownership, famously through the Tennessee Valley Authority, and promoted a new kind of utility: the rural electric cooperative that brought light and power to millions in the countryside. Since then, public and cooperative utilities have persisted as an alternative to shareholder control. Democracy in Power traces the rise of publicly governed utilities in the twentieth-century electrification of America.
Sandeep Vaheesan shows that the path to accountability in America’s power sector was beset by bureaucratic challenges and fierce private resistance. Through a detailed and critical examination of this evolution, Vaheesan offers a blueprint for a publicly led and managed path to decarbonization. Democracy in Power is at once an essential history, a deeply relevant accounting of successes and failures, and a guide on how to avoid repeating past mistakes.
Purchase the book online here!
This event is part of Energy Week at Penn. Check out the rest of the 2025 programming at energyweek.upenn.edu.
Sandeep Vaheesan
Legal Director, Open Markets InstituteSandeep Vaheesan is the legal director at the Open Markets Institute. He leads Open Markets’ legal advocacy and research work, including its amicus program. Vaheesan works on a range of anti-monopoly topics, including antitrust law’s role in structuring labor markets and promoting fair competition.
Victor Pickard
C. Edwin Baker Professor of Media Policy and Political Economy, Annenberg SchoolVictor Pickard is the Co-Director of the MIC Center and C. Edwin Baker Professor of Media Policy and Political Economy at the Annenberg School of Communication.
Shelley Welton
Presidential Distinguished ProfessorShelley Welton is Presidential Distinguished Professor of Law and Energy Policy with the Kleinman Center and Penn Carey Law. Her research focuses on how climate change is transforming energy and environmental law and governance.
