In recent months, citizens have been thinking eagerly about what exactly that is: new leadership. The indications – from all sides of the political spectrum – are vague. Out of the fog emerges something about style, transparency, better communication, no rumbling in back rooms. But it’s all about the form. You don’t hear anything about the content of that new leadership anywhere yet – despite daily assurances that people only want to talk from the content. While you would think that leadership first of all shows itself in concrete files. Form follows function and not the other way around.
But perhaps that flight in form is not surprising. The trouble with our time is that everything seems to be connected with everything. The temptation is great to pick a thing out of it and make it your political hobbyhorse. Halve the livestock! Abolish or increase the dividend tax! Study for free! Electric driving! More cheap homes!
But nothing can be managed in isolation from a policy point of view. When you say: energy, you are referring to spatial planning – because where should those windmills and solar parks be located? When you say: spatial planning, you also mean nature and housing – because which function should prevail? And when you say: housing, you also mean nitrogen and therefore agriculture. And thus nature, the price of food and the role of supermarkets. But who says that, also means health, because green and natural is good for us (unless nature turns out to be a source of nasty pathogens). A key to health is also having a job, the right job in a non-polluted or stressful environment. And that in turn means employment, i.e. economic growth with a cohesive growth of consumption and energy.
Pffff. No wonder there are calls from all sides for a complete turnaround, a start over. Our capitalist system is broken, says economist Mariana Mazzucato, and many say it after her. If the ‘system’ is broken, there would apparently be a button somewhere that you could press for the reset. Who wouldn’t want that, a magic button that makes everything go right the first time?
Unfortunately, leadership just means steer clear of magical thinking, and work your way through all the files with patience and science-based knowledge. No fragmented solutions, no wipes for the bleeding because every partial solution leads to problems elsewhere. Vision, therefore, in the long term, although you have to go to the ophthalmologist for it. Vision doesn’t mean you have to change everything all at once. Compare it with the infrastructure. You are also not going to improve the road network by replacing asphalt and bridges everywhere at the same time. But a leader knows where he/she wants to end up, hears all parties and then patiently builds the plan. Even if the angry motorists honk.
More than ever, leadership is about recognizing and dealing with complexity. Society includes people with conflicting expectations and levels of knowledge. Leadership means making substantive considerations and ultimately, with the best knowledge of the moment, making choices and following through with them. Combining energy, economy, spatial planning, nature and agriculture, preferably with an understanding of the international context, instead of sectoral and national governments. Leadership means creating support for choices that will not please everyone or meet with opposition. Leadership on the basis of the public interest means counteracting the tendency that everyone wants to be right but does not wish the other.
All that is new leadership.
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of October 4, 2021