Government Works Weekly #7
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] Civic Designer, (and more on the Innovation Team in the Governor’s Office), State of Maryland [Maryland]
[NEW] Senior Program Manager (SAVES), North America, Centre for Public Impact [Remote / USA / deadline 7 July]
[NEW] Policy Analyst, Directorate for Public Governance, OECD [Paris]
[NEW] Research Analyst, Fairvote [Maryland]
[NEW] Research Assistant, AI for Public Services, Alan Turing Institute [London]
[NEW] Digital Democracy Intern, Democracy Reporting International [Berlin]
Assistant Inspector General for Evaluations, Government Accountability Office (GAO), Office of the Inspector General [Washington, D.C. / deadline 3 July]
Policy Analyst / Project Lead, Open Government and Citizen Participation, OECD [Paris]
Policy Analyst, Open Government and Citizen Participation, OECD [Paris]
Director of Democratic Institutions (and more), Roosevelt Institute [Remote]
Director of Government Affairs and Senior Strategist (and more), Groundwork Collaborative [Washington, D.C.]
Fall Internships (Various), Ballotpedia [Remote / U.S.]
Voting Rights Program Associate (and more), Common Cause [California / U.S.]
Global Manager, Finance & Grants Administration, Centre for Public Impact [Multiple / Europe / deadline 5 July]
Executive Director, Basel Institute on Governance [Switzerland / deadline 12 July]
Research Data Analyst (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.]
Director of Curriculum and Design, Public Service Leadership Institute (and more), Partnership for Public Service [Washington, D.C.]
Associate Director, Special Projects, Elections & Voting (and more), Democracy Fund [Hybrid / Washington, D.C.]
Program Assistant, International Forum for Democratic Studies (and more), National Endowment for Democracy [Hybrid / Washington, D.C.]
Program Manager, Strengthening Democracy Initiative, SPLC [Washington, D.C.]
Senior Program Associate, Democracy Program (and more), The Carter Center [Hybrid / Atlanta]
Social Media Officer (and more), International Association for Democracy [Remote]
Program Analyst, Democracy, Rights, and Governance Initiative, Packard Foundation [Berkeley, California]
Finally, the leaders of the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at Tufts University recently announced their pending departures. See the announcement for more information on the transition and how to make recommendations for these important vacancies. CIRCLE does truly excellent work on youth voting and civic engagement.
UPCOMING EVENTS – webinars, conferences, and other human things
2 JULY: Learning Webinar: Innovations in Mainstreaming Participation [People Powered, TAI, and Open Government Partnership]
2 JULY: Revitalizing Political Leadership [Democracy Journal]
3 JULY: Launch Event: Fixing frictions: 'Sludge audits’ around the world [OECD]
9 JULY: Project 2025: Exposing the Far-Right Assault on America [Center for American Progress]
10 JULY: Biden Harris-PMA: Driving Results for All [Performance[.]gov]
10 JULY: Survey on Drivers of Trust in Public Institutions - 2024 Results [OECD]
11-12 JULY: Liberalism for the 21st Century [ISMA]
EYES & EARS – reading, podcasts, and other good stuff
[NEW REPORT] On Ecosystems of Democracy
Josh Lerner, the Co-Executive Director at People Powered, just released a new white paper on ecosystems of democracy. The webinar for the paper launch was hosted by the SNF Ithaca Initiative at the University of Delaware’s Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration, which commissioned the piece. Here is the abstract:
Anti-democratic movements are surging around the world, threatening to undermine elections and replace them with oligarchy. Pro-democracy movements mainly focus on defending elections, even though most people think that elections alone are inadequate. While elections dominate current thinking about democracy, the history and future of democracy is much broader. For over 5,000 years, people have built up competing waves of electoral, direct, deliberative, and participatory democracy. We are now seeing a transition, however, from waves to ecosystems. Rather than seeking one single solution to our ailing democracy, a new generation of democracy reformers is weaving together different democratic practices into balanced democratic ecosystems. This white paper provides a roadmap for this emerging next stage of democratic innovation. It reviews the limitations of elections, the different waves of democratic innovation and efforts to connect them, and key challenges and strategies for building healthy ecosystems of democracy.
I’ll share a link to the recording if I ever find it, but it was a great conversation. In the meantime, check out the paper!
Source: Josh Lerner, From Waves to Ecosystems: The Next Stage of Democratic Innovation, SNF Ithaca Research Scholar White Paper. No. 1 (2024).
[NEW PODCAST] On Project 2025
This week, Chris Hayes had Thomas Zimmer on his Why Is This Happening? podcast to discuss Project 2025. Listen to the whole thing (WTH is Project 2025? with Thomas Zimmer), but here is one great quote on how this isn’t just purely a plan to deconstruct the administrative state:
Yes, they wanna dismantle certain parts of government, everything that can be used as a tool for like a more egalitarian, fairer society that needs to go. But other parts of government they wanna mobilize and weaponize and not dismantle at all. They wanna turn government into an instrument to impose their vision of society on the country. And I think that's really something very different from dismantling the government.
And later:
Again, I think it's really important to understand this is a sort of, it has, it has two sort of, it operates on two level. On one level, this is a program to dismantle the state, right? And you see this, for instance, with Department of Education needs to go out. We don't want it, they want to just completely abolish it. Right? Right. That needs to go, or for instance, when it comes to the EPA, any sort of climate change regulation that all is out.
It needs to go, we don't want it. So that is sort of the dismantle part of this project. But then there's the weaponize and mobilize part, and that is sort of the idea to turn government into a tool that you can use for really only two purposes. One is to punish your enemies, and two is to impose this sort of vision of white Christian patriarchal order on American society. Now, you see this, for instance, in the Department of Health and Human Services, which is, I mean, if you read it, it's, it has very little to do with public health at all. It's entirely conceived as an instrument to impose a certain understanding of what, you know, a sort of heteronormative understanding of gender.
Zimmer, a historian at Georgetown University, also has a pretty interesting Substack newsletter called Democracy Americana. Check it out!
[NEW POLLING] On the Role of Government
Pew Research Center released a new report on Americans’ views of the role of government, part of a long string of work they have done on trust in government, including survey data going back to the Eisenhower administration. Some key findings from the report include:
“Americans are evenly divided in their preferences for the size of government. Yet a somewhat greater share wants the government to do more to solve problems than say it is doing too much better left to others.”
“Majorities of Americans see a role for government on several safety net issues.”
“Americans’ trust in the federal government, which has hovered at or near record lows for nearly 20 years, has modestly increased over the last year. Still, only about two-in-ten Americans say they trust the government in Washington to do what is right.”
The report is excellent and much more granular, including demographic and partisan breakdowns and views on regulation, Social Security, health care, and other key issues. Check it out!
Sources: Americans’ Views of Government’s Role: Persistent Divisions and Areas of Agreement, Pew Research Center, 24 June 2024; Public Trust in Government: 1958-2024, Pew Research Center, 24 June 2024.
[GOOD QUOTES] On How Government Works
Policies only work if they work for the people who need to implement them!... It seems straightforward. Policy should be carefully crafted to fit both how government offices actually work and how humans actually interact with agency systems. That’s the root of responsive government. So anyone who makes or passes policies should be sure to consult with officials and implementation experts on the ground floor, in order to ensure their voices guide the policy design and make sure it, well, works.
Source: Sam Oliker-Friedland in the Institute for Responsive Government newsletter (sign up)
I can’t say for sure whether the court’s six conservatives are hoping Americans lose faith in government. But I know this: The movement of which they are a part absolutely does. In fact, that is right at the core of contemporary conservatism. It seeks to undermine trust in the courts, in the executive branch, in Congress, in the K-12 education system, in universities, in the military, in the news media, in the election system, in public health agencies, in science — in short, in almost every important institution in American society with just a few exceptions (like the police).