Community colleges are two-year educational institutions that represent a global movement embedded in local community norms. Community colleges serve local economic needs by offering affordable courses that transfer to four-year institutions; technical and occupational training; continuing and remedial education programs; and workforce development. In the USA they have become a key point of entry to college for those who could not otherwise afford or access a college education, and a key provider of English as a second language to adult immigrants. Community college student populations tend to be made up of both lower socioeconomic levels and under-represented groups; thus, they serve a democratizing function within higher education and the larger society. These institutions face particular challenges because success, funding, and political capital in higher education are tied to a neoliberal emphasis on degree completion and upward social mobility, yet efforts to increase retention and accelerate the time to degree completion can undermine efforts at accommodating the most vulnerable students. This entry examines the open-door and democratizing functions of community colleges, and the competing challenges on economic and political levels experienced by these institutions.