Dave GuarinoSunday morning musing:
State capacity to do *what*?
Do we have an answer for each policy area?
(Does this require enumerating and committing to least-bad outcome definitions?)
Alex S@allafarce I like Sunday morning Dave musings! Thinking out loud…
I’m wondering — do these questions see the state… like a state? James C Scott style?
Who is the “we” answering what state capacity should be doing across policy areas? Vector sum of forces like elections, lawmaking, consultation, advocacy, executive decision making…?
The (US) state isn’t a unitary thing. Productive to visualize it as a constellation of different capacities and agendas?
@allafarce PS I just reread your systems of accountability newsletter post — whew what a banger
Bret Mogilefsky@alexsobill @allafarce I am still _very_ attached to my vision of government as a collection of value streams attached to the elements of Gross National Happiness.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_National_Happiness
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_National_Happiness
@alexsobill @allafarce More recently I would attach each element of each value stream to the top of a Wardley Map, identify common capacity/capabilities that appear frequently across them, and push those as far to the right as possible, using all the things we know that work to do that: shared services, platforms, centers of excellence, team topologies, etc.
@alexsobill there are a variety of actors, and I think the work of defining state capacity is happening across many of them