Government Works Weekly #9
Jobs, events, and a bunch of stuff for your YouTube watchlist
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] Policy and Research Analyst (and more), New York City Office of Technology & Innovation [NYC]
[NEW] Senior Communications Manager (and more), Apolitical [Hybrid / London / deadline 14 July]
[NEW] Deputy Director, Strategy & Design (and more), Democracy International [Bethesda, MD]
[NEW] Global Digital Democracy Advisor (and more), International Foundation for Electoral Systems [Arlington, VA]
[NEW] Counsel, Democracy Program (and more), Brennan Center for Justice [Washington, D.C.]
[NEW] Senior Program Coordinator (and more), National Conference of State Legislatures [Denver / deadline 19 July]
[NEW] EGAP New Member Application 2024, Evidence in Governance and Politics [deadline 8 Nov.]
[NEW] Congressional Innovation Fellowship, TechCongress [deadline 5 Aug.]
[NEW] President & Chief Executive Officer, Partners In Democracy [Massachusetts / deadline 1 Aug.]
Director, Global Programmes (and more), International IDEA [Sweden / Belgium / deadline 31 July]
Senior Associate, Research & Policy, Managing Fiscal Risks (and more), Pew Charitable Trusts [Washington, D.C.]
Director, Economic Analysis, Center for American Progress [Washington, D.C.]
Policy Analyst, Directorate for Public Governance, OECD [Paris / deadline 14 July]
Research Analyst, Fairvote [Maryland]
Research Assistant, AI for Public Services, Alan Turing Institute [London / deadline 14 JULY]
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.]
Research Data Analyst (and a bunch of Civic Designer roles), 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]
UPCOMING EVENTS – webinars, conferences, and other human things
15 JULY: Putting technology to work for inclusive prosperity: Challenges for public policy [Brookings]
16 JULY: 2024 Future of the Federal Workforce Summit [Government Executive]
17 JULY: Tackling Poverty Eradication Through Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions [Centre for Law and Democracy, International IDEA, TAP Network, and the World Justice Project]
17 JULY: Government Innovation Summit: Modernization & Collaboration in New York’s Government [City & State New York]
17 JULY: Ridiculous at first futures: from probability to possibility [Centre for Public Impact Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand]
17-18 JULY: 13th Annual Municipal Finance Conference [Brookings]
18 JULY: State Policy Efforts To Avert and Alleviate Medical Debt [CAP]
18 JULY: Launch of of USAID’s new Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance Policy [Wilson Center]
23 JULY: Autocracy in America – A Warning and Response [State Democracy Defenders Action]
24 JULY: Building High-Performance Teams in the Public Sector [Apolitical]
30 JULY: Human Learning Systems - Introductory Webinar [Centre for Public Impact]
31 JULY: Statehouse Futures Summit [Run For Something Action Fund, Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, and Democracy Policy Network]
EYES & EARS – reading, podcasts, and other good stuff
[NEW NUMBERS] On the Importance of Staffing, Funding, Trust for Delivering Results
Persistently Vacant: Critical federal leadership positions go unfilled for years [Partnership for Public Service’s Center for Presidential Transition, 9 July 2024]
The delays in the Senate confirmation process have resulted in many critical management and policy-focused positions remaining vacant for years. These vacancies may harm agencies’ ability to undertake long-term planning and harm the public reliant on their services.
I.R.S. Crackdown on Delinquent Millionaires Yields $1 Billion [New York Times, 11 July 2024]
The I.R.S. targeted 1,600 taxpayers with more than $1 million of income who owed more than $250,000 in tax debt.
Daniel Werfel, the I.R.S. commissioner, said that because of the agency’s larger enforcement staff, it has been able to focus on tracking down and sending letters to wealthy taxpayers who owe money. In many cases, these result in threats of additional penalties until the taxpayers eventually pay their tax bills, he said.
Mr. Werfel said he believed many rich taxpayers had neglected to pay their bills because they thought the I.R.S. did not have the capacity to go after them.
“Our message for these taxpayers is that now that we are resourced, we can do the job of ensuring that they pay,” he said.
OECD Survey on Drivers of Trust in Public Institutions – 2024 Results [OECD, 10 July 2024]1
Satisfaction with the provision of key public services, such as health, education and administrative services, remains relatively high… These day-to-day interactions with public institutions remain key drivers of trust in the civil service and local government.
[RE-RUNS] Stuff for Your YouTube Watchlist
In case you run out of bingeable content for your summer vacations, here are some of the event/webinar recordings shared over the last month in the upcoming events section of this newsletter. Let this serve as a friendly nudge to go ahead and sign up for Government Works so you find out about these events before they happen. It’s free!
11 JUNE: 2024 Trust Summit: The Role of Civil Servants in Democracy [Partnership for Public Service]2
12 JUNE: Public sector capacities for transformative public policies [Part of the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose Forum 2024 – Rethinking the State]3
13 JUNE: Creative Bureaucracy Festival 2024 [Creative Bureaucracy Festival]
17 JUNE: Does evidence matter in policy making? [Niskanen Center]
18-19 JUNE: Workshop Digital Government and Inclusion [Brazil's Ministry of Management and Innovation in Public Services + OECD]
26 JUNE: Sammies Summer Series: Part 1: Improving the Customer Experience [Partnership for Public Service]4
26 JUNE: White Paper Launch: "From Waves to Ecosystems: The Next Stage of Democratic Innovation" [Stavros Niarchos Foundation Ithaca Initiative at the University of Delaware]5
2 JULY: Revitalizing Political Leadership [Democracy Journal]
2 JULY: Learning Webinar: Innovations in Mainstreaming Participation [People Powered, TAI, and Open Government Partnership]
3 JULY: Launch Event: Fixing frictions: 'Sludge audits’ around the world [OECD]
9 JULY: Strengthening Security Through Democratic Resilience [USIP]
10 JULY: Survey on Drivers of Trust in Public Institutions - 2024 Results [OECD]
More on the whole 150+ page report some time over the next couple of weeks, but my kid is on break from school right now and I am heading to the park instead. The webinar was super interesting though, see the link to the recording in the next section of the newsletter, along with a lot of other cool events from the past couple months.
For more on the Trust Summit, see key takeaways from the host (Partnership’s 2024 Trust Summit explores the value of a nonpartisan civil service) or my takeaways in Government Works Weekly #6.
For a good summary of the event, see: Manuel Aguilera, “Public Administration is Political: Highlights from the IIPP Forum 2024,” IIPP on Medium, 26 June 2024.
Parts 2 and 3 of this series of events from The Partnership coming up in August, so stay tuned.
I wrote in more detail about this a couple weeks ago (Government Works Weekly #7) but finally found a link to the recording to share.