Over the last year or so there has been much criticism of leadership in the U.S. for the state of affairs in this country. Government at the local and national level has been criticized for failures in mitigating COVID-19 and for challenges in addressing any number of the problems we collectively face. Such criticism is often warranted, helpful even. Power needs accountability, so that it can be used most effectively to support the common good (see prior thoughts on how accountability can help ensure effective functioning within bureaucracies). However, it strikes me that in much of this criticism there is an implicit belief that people in positions of leadership have more power than they actually do to sway events. We seem to believe that there is somewhere a magic wand which can be waved to solve our problems, and that it is only some kind of obstinacy which stops those in power from waving it.
This belief reflects a lack of understanding, on our part, of the extent to which the capacity of leadership to do, well, anything, depends on us—on the consent of the governed. In my writing, including in my upcoming book, The Contagion Next Time, I have found myself returning to a telling quote from Abraham Lincoln, “[P]ublic sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it, nothing can succeed.” The power of public opinion is such that even a relatively low level of public engagement can be enough to reshape society. Research has suggested that it takes about 3.5 percent of a population actively engaging in political protests to bring about real political change.
Given this power, if the public withholds its consent from a given measure, governments face a steep uphill climb towards the measure’s successful implementation. It does not matter how much good the measure might do; without the consent of the governed, it cannot take effect to any significant degree. When this ineffectiveness occurs, it can look like it is solely the fault of incompetent leadership, when, in fact, leadership may be doing all it can within the confines of withheld public consent.
Read the full post on The Healthiest Goldfish.