A political essay to study the success factors behind highly ambitious public policies
What if a rich country decided to eradicate homelessness completely and provide a shelter for all homeless people? What if all young girls and women around the world really got a chance to get an education and salaries equal to men’s? What if we put in place the necessary actions to actually stop pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and feeding climate change, while remedying the injustices that go with the current distribution of energy? What if when reading those questions you felt that it’s not unreasonable to ask them, but that, while daring and full of challenges, they are the questions we should be asking ourselves? These are the questions that this research project and essay is asking.
We have become too accustomed to incremental thinking. Or, even worse, to accept unacceptable situations, injured by a sense of powerlessness, disappointment with politics, and overwhelmed by bad news. This essay documents how, around the world, bold politicians, public officials and citizens decided at one point in time to depart from slow progress to aim for the most idealistic goals possible. To actually chase their dream.
Through six stories, from Sweden that put in place a Zero-deaths on road policy in the 2000’s, to towns such as Chattanooga in the USA that have set themselves a zero-functional homeless person target, Stephen Boucher, founder of consultancy firm Dreamocracy, documents the real-world inspiring stories that demonstrate how it is possible to think big. It documents the unique mix that allows groups to reach goals previously dismissed as naive: boldness, speaking to imagination and values, systemic thinking, networked learning, psychological safety, and an evidence based approach. It also warns against pretending radical discourse that deceivingly smells and looks like constructive ambition.
This book is for citizens that have not given up hope. It is for civil servants who want to find new ways of acting. And it is for aspiring or actual politicians who don’t just want to share their dream, but also to back it up with a detailed roadmap, informed by the latest science in collective intelligence, social psychology and neuroscience.
The background research is undertaken with the very competent support of four research assistants:
- Alessandro Colletta
- Alessia Canuto
- Luis Johannes Schlüter
- Malachy Taplin
