Even most politicians want to work together
The people — and believe it or not even most policymakers — say they want collegial public leadership.
We got a head start in that direction earlier this month during the inaugural event at the Tommy G. Thompson Center on Public Leadership at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Our goals: to identify effective leadership practices and discuss what leaders can do to bring people together and to lead more effectively. Here’s what we learned:
There is a strong desire among the public and policymakers for collegial public leadership.
Nearly everyone discussed the importance of cooperation among policymakers. Current officials, former officials, and the public all expressed a strong appetite for more civility. To be sure, panelists conceded that parties have different worldviews, that they should run for office on those different views and that they should try to enact their platforms when in office. But panelists also recognized that those differences pale in comparison to the beliefs that unify us a state and nation. In other words, the will for greater collegiality is there. The Thompson Center will help to cultivate it.
Republicans and Democrats identified specific issues on which they might jointly work.
Among the issues they identified were: transportation policy, the opioid epidemic, Alzheimer’s research and foster care. One speaker identified children in the justice system as a bipartisan issue in need of reform. To that list, we would add criminal justice reform and examining how to get more people involved in public service. On April 26-27, the Thompson Center will host a bipartisan conference on criminal justice reform at the Monona Terrace in Madison. Next year, it will examine leadership empirically and how to attract more (and different types of) people to public service. The center aims to help policymakers address many of these issues collegially, and in a way that benefits the state.
Politics is especially contentious right now but there are plenty of good people with plenty of great ideas on how to improve government. The Thompson Center is poised to work with them.
Forward.
Ryan Owens is acting director of the Tommy G. Thompson Center on Public Leadership and a professor of Political Science at University of Wisconsin-Madison.