Geoff Mulgan
Geoff Mulgan
Geoff Mulgan CBEis Chief Executive of the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts and Visiting Professor at University College London, the London School of Economics and the University of Melbourne. Previously he was:...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionEducator
academia brought charge civil complex crops dissecting gm government including nuclear outside people problems schools science servant solving strategy work
As a civil servant in charge of the government's Strategy Unit, I brought in many people from outside government, including academia and science, to work in the unit, dissecting and solving complex problems from GM crops to alcohol, nuclear proliferation to schools reform.
hard-work ideas hard
Spreading an idea is hard work.
easily societies themselves
Societies can easily talk themselves into conflict and misery. But they can also talk, and act, their way out.
both complex council directly elected government include ministers organised parliament relationships shown
Europe has shown how government can be organised in a network. Its institutions both compete and co-operate and include a directly elected parliament that does not appoint the executive, independent judiciaries and a complex set of relationships between the Commission, the Council of Ministers and the Parliament.
vigorous
Vigorous independent and critical media are indispensable in a democracy.
charities people provider
People don't want charities to usurp the state as the core provider of social services.
attention everyday life mainstream money oil software taken time
Predation is part of the everyday life of capitalism, in sectors as mainstream as pharmaceuticals, software and oil - where people's money, their data, their time and their attention are routinely taken in fundamentally asymmetrical exchanges.
honours monarchy palaces
Radicalism is as British as tea and cakes, as much a part of our make-up as monarchy and football. It will never have its own jubilees, palaces or honours system.
answers contains within
Capitalism is not so much an aberration as a step on an evolutionary path, and one that contains within it some of the answers to its own contradictions.
ability change cynical government leave left opposite people rather
Many people leave government disillusioned about its ability to achieve change and cynical about politicians. I left with rather opposite lessons.
people prefer
I have a lot of admiration for people willing to face the public, but I'd prefer not to.
It matters more how governments behave than how big they are.
activity assembly civil concerns everyday helping liberties parties policies regulation rising seriously society street tide
By international standards, many of the U.K.'s policies for civil society are exemplary. However, there are concerns about constraints on civil liberties - particularly restrictions on free assembly and about the rising tide of everyday regulation has seriously impeded community activity - from organising street parties to helping children.
good government including lies operate responsibility system themselves
The responsibility for good government lies not just with governments themselves but also with every other part of the system they operate in, including media, non-governmental organisations and the public.