The Apolitical Foundation’s “Better Leaders, Better Democracies” report, published in May, provides a comprehensive map of political leadership incubators around the world. Few of the incubators focus on today’s most pressing issues, such as climate change, technology and democratic reform, pointing to a significant knowledge gap for future leaders.
The 21st century’s biggest problems require urgent and innovative solutions. Climate change, polarization, inequality, and war will not be fixed by carrying out business as usual.
Political training organizations, especially the ones that are called political leadership incubators (PLIs), are a source of hope for anyone who believes better politicians are an essential part of improving outcomes around the world.
The Apolitical Foundation’s “Better Leaders, Better Democracies” report, published in May, provides a comprehensive map of political leadership incubators around the world.
The highlights of the report are as follows:
Desirable political traits: PLIs need to know what traits make a good politician in order to know which participants to select. It is important that PLIs are very clear about what they are looking for. Research on what skills and mindsets make a good 21st century politician seems to be limited. In contrast, there are thousands of published papers about business leadership traits. More academic and practical exploration of this topic would help the PLI field.
Recruiting people who are driven by intrinsic values and who have the potential to be effective politicians is critical to getting the right people into politics. When intrinsically motivated people do enter the system, they may lack the skills, mindset, and connections to survive and deliver for the people. Research indicates that many political leadership problems may come from the supply side and that intrinsically motivated candidates can win when supported.
Training gaps: Few PLIs reported covering climate, technology, or democratic reform as policy topics.Out of the 420 PLIs mapped, only one is focused exclusively on climate, and it appears that not many have it as a big part of their curriculum. Few if any focus largely on technology and democratic reform. These seem like big gaps for future politicians.
There is opportunity for more programs that include or solely focus on climate and climate justice. This could help turn some activism in the streets into more climate candidates at elections. It is vital that politicians understand how technology is changing society and how to legislate in the face of it.
Evidence-driven approaches: While all organizations want to do world-class work, many have limited experience with evidence-based adult learning techniques and few had stated pedagogical approaches that they used in shaping and delivering their curriculum. This will limit program effectiveness. More focus and information sharing in this space is critical, and we believe even a little more focus on this will have outsized returns.
Party collaboration: Very few non-partisan PLIs work closely with parties. This lack of collaboration may limit impact. Less than five percent of people around the world claim party affiliation.18 PLIs could serve as great recruitment grounds for candidates. Non-partisan PLIs should consider finding ways to work with political parties across the political spectrum.
Most alumni will need to enter parties to have a large impact and transform systems. PLIs will be served by researching what parties are looking for, and by having a better understanding of how they “think”, what they want from programs, and their blind spots. This work needs funding for exploration and to pilot win-win solutions.
Underrepresented groups: The political training field has seen a surge of organizations created to address underrepresentation, but much more needs to be done. Of the groups surveyed, 24 percent said they intentionally recruited people from ethnic minorities, while 12 percent said they recruited people with disabilities and members of the LGBTQI+ community. Women were the most considered group, with 61 percent of survey respondents intentionally recruiting them. Twenty-nine percent said they intentionally recruited young people.
People from underrepresented groups likely need different and additional support to enter and stay in politics. Many do not see politicians that look like them and may feel intimidated, unwelcome, or oppressed by the system. Underrepresented groups also face extra pressure, such as racist or sexist threats, once in office.
Gender gap: A number of PLIs have been created to close the gender gap in politics, but they are still too few for the scale of the problem.
The World Economic Forum estimates that it will take more than 145 years to reach gender parity in politics at current rates of progress. Twenty-six percent of 35,500 parliamentary seats across the world were held by women in 2021, and only 22.6 percent of 3,400 ministers were women. Fifteen percent of
the total 420 organizations we mapped had programs exclusively for women.
Mental health and mindfulness: Twenty-first century leaders need mental health support to make good decisions and build resilience in the face of threats.
Few of the programs we spoke to addressed mental health at all. More research needs to be done into how to best support politicians’ mental health, whether within PLI training or once leaders have been elected to office. Additionally, programs that focus on mindfulness and self-reflection are critical to making sure power does not go to leaders’ heads.
Missed opportunity: All the PLIs said it was difficult to get funding. Philanthropic donors may be shying away because they think this work is too political, even though most PLI work happens before leaders are elected. Making sure that politicians across the political spectrum are capable and trustworthy when
they get into office is fundamental to the future of our democracies. Non-partisan PLIs could be a good
option for donors concerned about funding political projects because they are not aligned with any party,
nor do they engage in elections.
Based on conversations with people in the field, it is estimated that roughly $40 million is spent on
training people in civil society, civil services and social movements on governance and democracy-related topics per year, and $15 million of that is going to non-partisan PLIs.
Field coordination: Nearly all the PLIs expressed interest at the idea of sharing information and practices to increase their capacity and impact. The space is mostly siloed and could achieve more, better, and faster if PLIs worked together. There is evidence that the most successful political movements have groups to convene, attract funders, provide collective care, and share learnings.
You can read the full report here.