Forum Debate: Leadership in crisis

We’re holding a series of webcast debates in Davos. Join our cast debating the following motion:

Public leadership is failing to deliver social cohesion and stability.

• Add your voice to this Forum Debate
• Vote on the motion in the poll below, and comment to support your opinion.
• The poll will close at the start of the session. Results and comments will be available to the moderator to frame the debate.

“Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”

• Winston Churchill, House of Commons speech, November 11, 1947

The world is increasingly complex, fast-moving and interconnected. Public leaders across the globe are failing to cope. They struggle with global challenges which impact domestic politics. In many countries, increasing inequality and social polarization are threatening cohesion and stability. The political systems in which leaders operate are equally challenged.

Public leadership is facing a crisis of trust.

Some issues:

• Gridlock: Leaders can’t overcome internal divisions, political paralysis or agree a way forward to deliver social cohesion for citizens
• Time to rethink democracy: Can polarization only be avoided by fundamental reworking of how we do politics?
• Leaders need to work together across different sectors to see the whole system, and coproduce a more equitable future. A Call for more meaningful citizen participation in politics
• World is changing rapidly, and old system is defunct. Do governments need to redesign leadership in step with a changing world?
• New forms of democracy? Can authoritarian democracy deliver more for citizens?

We invite you to provide your point of view in the lead up to and during the debate. Below are some resources to provide background.

Resources
David Gergen says today’s leaders need a global perspective for greater good
Harvard University’s Barbara Kellerman says leading by command and control is out
Global Agenda Outlook 2015 Top ten trends: Lack of lack leadership
Nordic consensus-seeking politics can provide a new model
Economist Dambisa Moyo on China’s model of political economy and impact for Africa, plus further reading

Author: Mike Hanley is Senior Director of Communications, Digital Content and Editing, at the World Economic Forum.

Image: A man walks past a corridor at a commercial building in Tokyo’s business district September 30, 2014. REUTERS/Yuya Shino