Where practice
meets policy.
These are the problems I keep running into on the Commission, in my advisory work, and when I sit down to write.
Underneath all three is whether a given decision builds an institution’s ability to meet future needs or quietly uses it up.
I call that ability governing room, and the framework essay works through it in detail.
Read Governing RoomEffective Government
Government earns trust the slow way, by doing what it said it would do.
Whether a public organization can actually do what it says it will, and what it takes to get it there.
Explore the work
Fiscal Stewardship
The obligations that do not appear on the ballot are the ones that decide the future.
Long-term obligations, capital planning, and the discipline to pay for the public systems we choose to use.
Explore the work
Strong Communities
Whether a place works is decided in ordinary ways: whether the ambulance comes fast, whether a child can walk to school.
Safety, mobility, housing, schools, and public space: the ordinary conditions that decide whether people can build a life in a place.
Explore the work
Democracy & Institutions
Whether people can still act together and finish what they start, in a township or a country. Local competence and national credibility are the same problem at different scales.
Read the argument