Government Works Weekly #51
Jobs, Events, and Examining the Enemy from Within
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.
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EYES & EARS – reading, podcasts, and other good stuff
Trump, caught perhaps in a revealing moment, talked this week about going after the “enemy from within“... agreed, Mr. President, but therapy would be a lot cheaper and more effective to that end than deploying the military in U.S. cities.
Adam Przeworski returns with irregular musings after his previous weekly diary output became too depressing
Also check out a recent interview with Przeworski in Dissent about “How Democracies Fall Apart”
Ross Douthat has been staging incredibly interesting interviews in recent months, and this conversation with Hasan Piker, someone of a very different political persuasion, did not disappoint
Very thoughtful discussion with Steve Grove on Niskanen’s Vital Center podcast, touching on media, tech, and progress at different levels of government
Matt Yglesias preaching to the choir with this paean to public services, appropriate when parts of the government are currently closed
Binyamin Appelbaum illustrates the “unpredictable and lasting damage” of government shutdowns through the case of air traffic controllers
Speaking of the shutdown, I find myself agreeing with most of Brian Beutler’s 20 Thoughts On The Government Shutdown, and not just because of his great name
G. Elliott Morris had a couple good posts this week, one slightly depressing on the U.S. as a “mixed” or “illiberal” democracy and the next, slightly more hopeful, on how Trump’s unpopularity is related to the speed with which his administration is moving
The second Morris piece pairs nicely with Jamelle Bouie’s reminder that ‘The Most Epic Political Victory Our Country Has Ever Seen’ Is Nothing of the Kind, or as I previously argued, no one asked for this
Finally, for a slight palate cleanser, Sean Illing’s ongoing series on Camus, Dostoevsky, and other writers is great, and the latest on “The Cult of Certainty” ends with an idea relevant to our subject matter:
“Democracy is institutionalized humility: no one has the whole truth, we argue it out, we accept disagreement. Authoritarian movements, by contrast, sell the thrill of certainty — one truth, one people, one destiny. But it’s bullshit. It’s always bullshit in the end.”
EVENT HORIZON – webinars, conferences, and other human things
WEEK OF 6-10 OCTOBER
6-10 OCT: National Voter Education Week
6-10 OCT: Unscripted: Candid Conversations about Who Gets to Imagine the Future [Robert Wood Johnson Foundation]
7 OCT: Creative Revivals: Transforming Vacant Spaces into Vibrant Places [National League of Cities]
7 OCT: Beyond the Headlines: What’s Really Happened in 2025 to data[.]gov, Open Data, and Data Leadership [Data Foundation]
7 OCT: Democratic Innovation or Expensive Boondoggle? The value of mini-publics in theory and practice [Centre for Deliberative Democracy]
7 OCT: Letter to the Editor Training: Domestic Deployment [POGO]
7-9 OCT: 2025 OGP Global Summit [Open Government Partnership]
7-9 OCT: Radically Rural Summit
8 OCT: Communicating the Relationship Between Place, Racism, and Early Childhood Development [FrameWorks Institute + Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University]
8 OCT: The New Geopolitics of Digital Government Reform in the Age of Trump and AI: A View from Canada [Centre for Digital Governance]
8 OCT: Strength in Democracy Forum
9 OCT: Conecta Recife: A Comprehensive Digital Platform for Public Service Excellence [Teaching Public Service in the Digital Age]
9 OCT: Lessons on Collecting Data and Driving Change to Support Student Parent Success [Urban Institute]
9 OCT: Communicators for Civic Action: Building Pro-Civic Space Narratives [CIVICUS]
9 OCT: California Data Centers in Context: Histories, Impacts, Policies [Kapor Foundation]
9-10 OCT: Digital Democracy The Hague
APPLY YOURSELF – jobs, internships, and other ways to get involved
POLICY + PROGRAM
Civic Design Research Practice Lead, Center for Civic Design [Remote]
Program Director, A Constitution for 2076, Democracy 2076 [Remote]
Senior Public Sector Specialist, World Bank [D.C.]
Section Research Manager, Government Finance and Taxation, Congressional Research Service [D.C.]
Senior Policy Analyst, Elections Project, Bipartisan Policy Center [D.C.]
Director, Funding the Next Generation, Children’s Funding Project [California]
Vice President, Health Policy, Center for American Progress [D.C.]
Director of Policy Engagement and Analytics, Health Policy Impact Lab [New Haven, CT]
Housing Policy Manager, The Climate and Community Institute [Remote]
Program Assistant, Clean Air and Water, Conservation Law Foundation [Boston]
Program Director, Peaceful Governance Institute [Remote / occasional D.C.]
Senior Director, Freedom and Prosperity Center, Atlantic Council [D.C.]
STATE + LOCAL
Policy Director, California Policy Lab [Sacramento, CA]
Director, Environment, Energy & Transportation, National Conference of State Legislatures [Denver, CO]
Housing Solutions Lab City Engagement Manager, NYU Furman Center [New York]
Collaborations & Events Coordinator, Bloomberg Center for Cities [Harvard]
Community and Economic Development (CED) Program Coordinator, Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council [Bend, OR]
State Climate Policy Manager, Pacific Environment [Sacramento, CA]
Events and Major Donor Fundraiser, Rank MI Vote [Michigan]
COMMS + OPS
Director of Development, Analyst Institute [Remote]
Vice President, Development and Partnerships, Public Justice [Flexible]
Chief Impact and Operating Officer, New Politics [Flexible]
Director of People, Public Rights Project [Flexible]
Director of Organizational Communications, The Global Fund for a New Economy [Remote]
Press Secretary, Groundwork Collaborative [D.C.]
ACADEMIA
Assistant/Associate Professor of Political Science—Public Administration, University of Oklahoma [Norman Campus]
Assistant Professor, U.S. Politics & Political Institutions, Virginia Tech [Blacksburg, VA]
Journalism and Democracy Instructor, Center for Community News [University of Vermont]
Assistant Professor - Public Policy, University of North Carolina [Chapel Hill]
Research Director, Health Policy Impact Lab [New Haven, CT]
Program Officer (Researcher), Inequality and Exclusion, Center on International Cooperation [New York University]
Senior Fellow, California Climate and Energy Policy, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment [Stanford University]
Research Associate, Law and Governance, Biosecurity and Global Health, The Asia Centre for Health Security [National University of Singapore]
TECH + DATA + DESIGN
National Data Specialist, America Votes [D.C.]
Senior Data and Network Scientist, Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy [Harvard]
Senior Product Manager, DataKind [Remote]
AI Architect, Governor’s Office of Information Technology [Remote / Colorado]
User Experience (UX) Strategist, Office of Innovation & Technology [City of Philadelphia]
INTERNATIONAL
Climate Democracy Program Coordinator, People Powered [Remote]
Director, Programs, Open Society Foundation [Amman, Jordan]
Global Engagement Manager, ACLED [Remote]
Cameroon & Nigeria Researcher, ACLED [Remote]
Communications Assistant, Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption (RoLAC) Programme, International IDEA [Abuja, Nigeria]
Policy Associate, J-PAL LAC [Guatemala]
Head of Zambia Evidence Lab, International Growth Centre [Zambia]
Policy Specialist, Oceana [Remote / Brussels]
INTERNSHIPS + FELLOWSHIPS
State Democracy Policy Intern, League of Conservation Voters [Remote]
Internship, The Quality of Government (QoG) Institute [University of Gothenburg]
Economic Fellow, The Institute for Policy Integrity [Hybrid / NYC]
Human Resources Intern, CIVICUS [Remote]
Charlotte E. Ray Legal Fellowship 2026, Conservation Law Foundation [Flexible / New England]
Design Intern, Fall 2025, The Center for Effective Global Action [Hybrid / Berkeley, CA]
Design Intern, Aspen Institute’s Policy Academy [Remote]
Frontlines of Freedom Intern, Renew Democracy Initiative [Hybrid / Remote / D.C. / NYC]
Strategic Data Project Fellow, Strategic Data Project [Cambridge, MA]
Undergraduate Fellowships, Roosevelt Institute [deadline 12 Jan.]
Research Fellow, Anti-Corruption Data Collective [Remote]
Spring Internship 2026, Democracy Program, Bipartisan Policy Center [D.C.]
Great Lakes Policy Fellow, National Parks Conservation Association [Chicago]
And lots more opportunities in the last newsletter: Government Works Weekly #50.