Location: School of Public Policy& Governance, U of T Topic: The Art of Public Strategy (2 ed.

), Geoff Mulgan Date: May 2, 2012 Notes: Mimi Lau Geoff Mulgan presented his views on long-term strategy and policy making from a national and international perspective. Most of his discussion related to economic policy. Trends and observations about National Economic Policies: Demand for long-term strategy is high in some parts of the world (for example China and Korea) and low in others, namely democracies such as the United States. The implication is that the gap in competitiveness between emerging economies and current dominant powers may continue to grow. If the US continues to disengage from investing in innovation they may fall further behind in the next 10 years. Canada could choose to follow this path or create its own path. After the 1930s countries such as New Zealand and Sweden went through a process of talking about values systems and social welfare. It is from these public discussions of value and meaning that new social contracts emerged. Today, countries such as Denmark and Finland are ones to watch as they have been galvanized by the fiscal crisis. In Europe a number of governments are moving towards horizontal teams, budgets and implementation structures, e.g. matrix structure as opposed to traditional silos. Evaluation and feedback are also being designed into the strategy process making them more robust then previous linear processes. (I think this is a good note for non-profits as accountability and funding budgets continue to tighten) Happiness indicators are starting to be measured in a number of countries such as Germany, India, UK, and France. Indicators include factors such as active transportation, social capital, and well-being. Well-being is not necessarily linked to GDP or healthcare spending. In the US, 17% of GDP is spent on healthcare and yet they have the poorest outcome. However, at for the time being the role of happiness indicators seems limited to a statistical measure. For example, although David Cameron instituted a statistical exercise to measure happiness & well-being, there is limited usage of them in the development of National Strategies and it is still perceived that these measures can be taken care of by civil society or the 3rd sector.