Government Works Weekly #15
Jobs, Events, and Excellent Public Servants
Welcome to your weekly roundup of opportunities, events, and information about how government works—and how government can work better—to improve the lives of individuals, families, and communities.
APPLY YOURSELF – jobs, internships, and other ways to get involved
[NEW] Chief Executive Officer, Open Government Partnership [Washington, London, Brussels, or Other / deadline 4 Oct.]
[NEW] Senior Director Knowledge & Research (and more), Power for Democracies [Hybrid / Berlin]
[NEW] Director, Strategic Communications and Partnerships (and more), Democracy International [Bethesda, MD]
[NEW] Executive Director, California (and more), Common Cause [California / Remote]
[NEW] Communications Manager (and more), Virginia Civic Engagement Table [Virginia or D.C.-based / Remote]
[NEW] Counsel/Professional Staff Member, House Oversight and Accountability Committee [Washington, D.C.]
[NEW] Media and Narratives Officer, Oxfam International [Location flexible / deadline 13 Sept.]
[NEW] Rising Stars Mentorship (online mentorship program launch and improve participatory programs), People Powered [deadline 27 Sept.]
[NEW] Communications Officer – Narratives and Networks (and more), CIVICUS [Remote]
Senior Director, CIRCLE, Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement [Hybrid / Medford, MA]
Vice President and Director, Governance Studies, Brookings [Washington, D.C. / via Isaacson, Miller]
Junior Networks and Partnerships Officer, Accountability Lab [Hybrid / Washington, D.C. / deadline 20 Sept.]
Non-Profit Finance and Accounting Support Services, Open Government Partnership [Terms of Reference: Call for Expressions of Interest]
Director of Design, Code for America [San Francisco or Remote U.S.]
First Mate, GovNavigators LLC [Washington, D.C. metro preferred]
Graphic Designer, FairVote [Silver Spring, MD]
Senior Manager, Grants & Contracts (and more), Results for America [Flexible U.S.]
Associate Director, Elections Project (and more), Bipartisan Policy Center [Washington, D.C.]
Communications Consultant – Digital Governance and Civic Space, Open Government Partnership [Contract]
Evidence and Evaluation Analyst, Arnold Ventures [Washington, D.C. or New York City]
Practitioner Fellow in Democracy, University of Virginia’s Karsh Institute of Democracy [Hybrid / Charlottesville, VA / application review 1 Oct.]
Associate Director of Program Compliance, Code for America [San Francisco or Remote U.S.]
Senior Director, Marketing (and more), iCivics [Remote U.S.]
Senior Manager, Office of the President, JPB Foundation [New York]
Director of Program Management (and more), JPB Foundation [New York]
President / CEO, Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement [Remote / U.S. / deadline 27 Sept.]
Chief Development Officer (and more), Center for Popular Democracy [Remote]
Director of Research & Evaluation, ideas42 [Remote / Washington, D.C. or New York / NY preferred]
Senior Advisor for Governance and Anti-Corruption, Center for Global Impact, IRI [Washington, D.C.]
Communications Program Officer, Open Government Partnership [preferably Brussels or Washington D.C.]
Manager/Facilitator, Public Service Leadership Institute (and more), Partnership for Public Service [Washington, D.C.]
Director, State and Local Government Affairs, Center for American Progress [Hybrid / Washington, D.C.]
Director of “Free Them All: The Fred Hiatt Program To Free Political Prisoners” (and more), Freedom House [Hybrid / Washington, D.C.]
Policy and Research Analyst (and more), New York City Office of Technology & Innovation [NYC]
Youth Engagement and Civic Education Specialist (and more), International Foundation for Electoral Systems [Arlington, VA]
EGAP New Member Application 2024, Evidence in Governance and Politics [deadline 30 Sep.]
Communications Manager (and more), Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation [Hybrid]
Vice President for State Network Strategy (and more), Center on Budget and Policy Priorities [Hybrid / Washington, D.C.]
UPCOMING EVENTS – webinars, conferences, and other human things
10 SEP: Honoring Public Service: The Untold Stories [Washington Post featuring Michael Lewis and W. Kamau Bell]
10 SEP: Is the Democratic Party (small-d) democratic Enough? [Ash Center]
10 SEP: Local Deep Dives: Public Participation [Open Government Partnership]
12 SEP: Administrative Burdens: A Framework for Improving Government [Dr. Jerzy Hauptmann Distinguished Guest Lecture]
12 SEP: Government & AI Summit [Nextgov/FCW]
12 SEP: Elections under threat: Priorities for 2024, 2025, and beyond [Atlantic Council]
12 SEP: Beyond Discourse Dumpster Fires: Strategies and Tools for Better Online Civil Space [Berkman Klein Center]
12-13 SEP: The Ninth Public Investors Conference [World Bank]
13 SEP: Book Launch: Relearning Democracy: Innovations to activate citizens from classroom to community [People Powered]
16 SEP: Responsible Tech Summit: Ensuring Our Tech Future Is Aligned With Democracy [All Tech Is Human]
17 SEP: The Global State of Democracy 2024 Global Launch Event [International IDEA]
17 SEP: Innovator’s Hour: Methods for Modernizing Government: Part 3 [Partnership for Public Service]
17-18 SEP: BenCon: Digital Benefits Conference [Digital Benefits Network at the Beeck Center]
18 SEP: Local Deep Dives: Gender and inclusion [Open Government Partnership]
18 SEP: Innovator’s Hour: Methods for Modernizing Government: Part 4 [Partnership for Public Service]
18 SEP: Delivering purpose-driven government in the UK [UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose]
18-22 SEP: Democracy R&D Conference [Mass LBP]
19 SEP: Educators Workshop [Teaching Public Service in the Digital Age]
19-20 SEP: International Democracy Day Brussels: A Year of Elections [EED, EPD, IDEA, ENoP]
EYES & EARS – reading, podcasts, and other good stuff
[READ] Papers on Strengthening Democratic Governance for Better Public Policies and Services from this week’s Annual Conference of the European Group for Public Administration, which are up and ungated here.
[LISTEN] Management Matters Podcast on Competence in Government. This recent episode from the National Academy of Public Administration interviews “Janet Hale, former government official and Academy Fellow, to discuss the importance of competence in government and what it looked like at different departments including the Department of Homeland Security.”
[READ] “The Canary” by Michael Lewis, the first post in a “Who is Government?” series on public servants from The Washington Post Opinion section. It is a good prelude to WaPo’s event with Michael Lewis next week (see top of previous section), and part of the larger project of Lewis shining the light into the far corners of government going back to The Fifth Risk book from 2018.
[READ] About Trump’s plans to put chaos monkey Elon Musk in charge of “government efficiency” (NYT/WSJ).1 As a reminder, this disingenuous proposal is part and parcel of a broader anti-government agenda that includes a myopic focus on fraud, fear mongering about debts and deficits, budget brinkmanship, efforts to undermine trust in voting, attempts to politicize public education, and other projects to weaken the ability of government to serve as a universal countervailing force to concentrations of private power, all subjects we will revisit at greater length here in the future.
In the meantime, here are a few background readings – some hot off the presses:
Fraud: Don Moynihan and Pamela Herd, “About Time - Part II: Cutting the Time Tax Created by Government,” Can We Still Govern?, 21 Aug. 2024.
Debts/Deficits: David Stein, “The Deficit-Hawk Takeover: How Austerity Politics Constrained Democratic Policymaking,” Roosevelt Institute, 5 Sept. 2024.
Budget: Haley Byrd Wilt and Reese Gorman, “Inside Mike Johnson’s ‘Failure Theater’ on Government Funding,” Notus, 6 Sept. 2024.
Elections: Jonathan Bernstein, “Wrong About Fraud. And About Democracy,” Good Politics/Bad Politics, 11 June 2024.
Public Education: Jon Valent, “Democrats and Republicans on K-12 education: A comparison,” Brookings, 5 Sept. 2024; Julie Carr Smyth, “The GOP platform calls for ‘universal school choice.’ What would that mean for students?” Associated Press, 11 July 2024; Maurice Cunningham, “The Dark Money Defunding Rural Schools,” Barn Raiser, 5 Sept. 2024.
[READ] An inspiring story from “niche internet microcelebrity” Will Stancil about what he learned during his recent unsuccessful primary race for an open Minnesota House seat. Writing a guest post for Brian Beutler’s excellent Off Message Substack, Stancil reminds us what we political and policy nerds are really here for:
An election wasn't really a contest with a prize. It was a course of study. It was the process of trying to become the world's premier authority in what my neighbors wanted and needed from their government, so that I could help them get it.
Michael Gold and Alan Rappeport, “Trump Calls for an Efficiency Commission, an Idea Pushed by Elon Musk,” New York Times, 5 Sept. 2024; Alex Leary, Richard Rubin, and Vivian Salama, “Trump Proposes 15% Tax Rate for Some Companies and a Role for Elon Musk in Government,” Wall Street Journal, 5 Sept. 20024.