What to think about where we’re going

Alex Himelfarb contemplates the future of government.

One constant theme was the need to rebuild trust, not blind trust of course, not even deference, but enough trust to enable cooperation and collective action when these are clearly in our interests. Of course, this means reinventing government, closing the gap between civil society and government, developing private-public partnerships, focusing on those things that only governments can do and encouraging non-governmental solutions where possible. In the past, governments have been able to reinvent themselves to suit the times. But how can any of this happen in a climate of anger, cynicism and distrust? How can any of this happen when government doesn’t want it to happen? What are we to think?