The Center for Civic Enterprise at the Progressive Policy Institute works to develop public policy and foster civic innovation to help replace the era of big government with an era of big citizenship, where Americans from all backgrounds are brought together in common efforts to tackle the great challenges of our time:

• Offering hope and opportunity to the millions of American children trapped in a cycle of poverty;
• Meeting the challenges of long-term aging in the face of the coming wave of baby boomer retirees;
• Securing the homeland from the new threats we face from abroad; and
• Sharing the burden of fighting in America's defense.

By fostering the skills and habits of active citizenship, the Center is working to reinvent our democracy to cope with the dislocations and demands of the 21st century, just as forward-thinking Americans did during the Progressive Era early in the 20th century. Through research, publications and articles, and work with policymakers and civic leaders, the Center is at the forefront of reshaping federal policy and reinventing government institutions to place American citizens themselves at the center of solving national problems. Around the country, the Center works with state and local policymakers to help them tackle their most pressing problems through increased citizen participation and civic activism.

The goals of the Center for Civic Enterprise are a natural extension of the mission of the Progressive Policy Institute, which is to define and promote a new progressive politics for the 21st century. The Institute's core philosophy stems from the belief that America is ill served by an obsolete left-right debate that is out of step with the powerful forces reshaping our society and economy. The Institute believes in adapting the progressive tradition in American politics to the realities of our time by advocating a Third Way approach beyond the liberal impulse to defend the bureaucratic status quo and the conservative bid to dismantle government.