David Bromell – författare

This book identifies six ethical competencies for public leadership in contexts of pluralism. While diversity in proximity generates conflict where people want and value different things, the right kind of leadership and the right kind of politics can minimise domination, humiliation, cruelty and violence.

Written by a public policy advisor for fellow practitioners in politics and public life, this book applies political theory and social ethics to identify a set of competencies—being civil, diplomatic, respectful, impartial, fair and prudent—to keep ethics at the centre of a pluralist democratic politics. The six competencies are described in behavioural terms as personal resolutions. They offer valuable tools for mentoring and professional development.

This book will appeal to politicians and those who advise them, and anyone who engages in or aspires to public leadership, whether in the public sector, the private sector, the community and voluntary sector or academia.

Hateful thoughts and words can lead to harmful actions like the March 2019 terrorist attack on mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. In free, open and democratic societies, governments cannot justifiably regulate what citizens think, feel, believe or value, but do have a duty to protect citizens from harmful communication that incites discrimination, active hostility and violence.

Written by a public policy advisor for fellow practitioners in politics and public life, this book discusses significant practical and moral challenges regarding internet governance and freedom of speech, particularly when responding to content that is legal but harmful. Policy makers and professionals working for governmental institutions need to strike a fair balance between protecting from harm and preserving the right to freedom of expression. And because merely passing laws does not solve complex social problems, governments need to invest, not just regulate. Governments, big tech and the private sector, civil society, individual citizens and the fourth estate all have roles to play, and counter-speech is everyone’s responsibility.

This book tackles hard questions about internet governance, hate speech, cancel culture and the loss of civility, and illustrates principled pragmatism applied to perplexing policy problems. Furthermore, it presents counter-speech strategies as alternatives and complements to censorship and criminalisation.

A key message is that effective policy advising is less about cycles, stages and steps, and more about relationships, integrity and communication. Policy making is incremental social problem solving. Policy advising is mostly learned on the job, like an apprenticeship. It starts with careful listening, knowing one’s place in the constitutional scheme of things, winning the confidence of decision makers, skillfully communicating what they need to hear and not only what they want to hear, and learning to lead from behind, scheme virtuously and play nicely with others.

The author introduces a public value approach to policy advising that uses collective thinking to address complex policy problems, evidence-informed policy analysis that also factors in emotions and values, and the practice of “gifting and gaining” (rather than “trade-offs”) in the long-term public interest. Theory is illustrated by personal anecdote and each chapter offers practical processes, tools, techniques and questions for reflection, to help readers master the art and craft of policy advising.

This text for students of politics and public policy, and for learning on the job by new policy analysts, provides a practical introduction grounded in the author’s experience of working in public policy.

In four concise chapters, Part I steps through doing policy analysis in practice: from clear commissioning and project planning, to doing analysis through collective thinking, to telling a compelling policy story, to peer review and quality assurance.

The six chapters in Part II are a resource for reflective practice, introducing theory to address questions policy analysts confront in the course of their work. What is the purpose of politics and public policy? How do I know I am making a difference? How do I tackle working with stakeholders with different, competing, or conflicting interests? How might I navigate conflicting claims relating to identity and culture? And how can I balance responsiveness to current demands with responsibility to future generations?

Every chapter closes with suggestions for group exercises and questions for individual reflection.