Geoff Mulgan is director of the Young Foundation. He was previously director of the British prime minister’s Strategy Unit, head of the Performance and Innovation Unit in the Cabinet Office and the prime minister’s adviser on social policy. He was the founder and director of Demos, and is the author of several books including Connexity (Harvard Business Press, 1998) and Politics in an Antipolitical age (Polity, 1994). He writes here in a personal capacity.

Recent articles

The sceptical scrutiny of "philanthrocapitalism" by Michael Edwards is welcome. But markets and social enterprise could help realise the potential of a new donor economy, says Geoff Mulgan.

Geoff Mulgan sees two ways in which organisational principles borrowed from the world of open source can make the political process more accountable. One is in turning democracy back into a conversation, the other in allowing the people to scrutinise public services. But, he warns, there still needs to be a recognisable place where the buck stops. Becky Hogge spoke to him.

The principle guiding successful governance is changing. Until recently, policy ideas evolved (and too often failed) within a vacuum of national experience and cultural superiority. Today, the global commons – a shared space of experience, knowledge, and experiment – is transforming the way political systems think and operate. One of the architects of the New Labour reform programme in Britain, writing in a personal capacity, maps a key transition.

Sue Goss’s recent book “Making Local Governance Work” explores the changing experience of local centres of power in Britain under the impact of political reform and cultural change. Geoff Mulgan of the Performance and Innovation Unit in the Cabinet Office (writing here in a personal capacity), welcomes the space of debate she has opened up, but warns that the forces of local revival must still negotiate some traditional obstacles.