If you want a model for how the world can solve its most pressingproblems in the 21st century, it is the posse. As governance systems go,the Wild West approach of rounding up a few available hands and drivingthe bad guy out of town is certainly messy, but, if our favoritewesterns are any guide, it could be highly effective. Politicaltheorists who can see the potential dress it up in highfalutin'language as "coalitions of the willing" and governance based on"flexible geometry," but we prefer to call it what it is: aposse. And this week, in New York, we are going to see plenty ofevidence of why the posse is our best hope for getting things done.
This is the time of the year when New York's traffic is gridlocked bytwo massive events focused on global problems -- the General Assemblyof the United Nations and the Clinton Global Initiative -- and aplethora of smaller events making the most of the influx of worldleaders, thinkers and celebrities. Inside the United Nations, created inthe pre-posse era of top down governmental approaches, there will alsobe plenty of gridlock, we fear, at least on headline-grabbing topicslike the politics of the Middle-East. Such progress that will be madewill be on issues where the UN is engaged in a posse with business,non-governmental agencies and philanthrocapitalists, such as on tacklingcommunicable diseases -- thanks not least to the Ted Turner-created UNFoundation and its associated UN Office for Partnerships. But the truecenter of posse action will be the Clinton Global Initiative, where thesheriff (or cowboy-in-chief -- in a good way), Bill Clinton, willpreside over updates and new commitments from dozens of posses bringingtogether people and organizations committed to doing what works across awide range of global issues, although this year's three main themeswill be job creation, girl power and sustainable consumption.
We first started talking about this approach years ago, after reading arather dense section (starting on page 407) of the influential yet oftenincomprehensible book, Empire, by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri.They saw the role of the posse as largely about bringing down (in a sortof neo-Marxist way) the established oppressive forms of government:"the name that we want to use to refer to the multitude in itspolitical autonomy and its productive activity is the Latin verb posse-- power as a verb, as activity." We prefer to see the posse as away that government, business, non-profits, philanthropists,celanthropists and individual citizens can work together moreeffectively to solve problems that cannot be sorted out by governmentalone (or any of those other actors alone, for that matter).
Posses, as we all know from cowboy movies, have two keycharacteristics. First, they are set up to achieve a specific goal thatis both necessary and achievable, such as catching the black-hattedcattle-rustlers. Second, they are voluntary, collaborative associations-- yes, coalitions of the willing: they may be convened by the townsheriff (doubtless wearing a white hat), but they are based on theactive, engaged participation of others irrespective of their job orrole.
In her excellent new book on the future of work, The Shift,London Business School professor Lynda Gratton talks about how everyindividual should form a posse to help them succeed professionally. Herthoughts on posse formation for the individual would apply equally wellto any organisation meeting this week in New York: "Here is what Ithink a great posse is and can do: It's a relatively small group ofpeople [organisations!], who have some of the same expertise that youhave - so there is enough overlap for you to really understand eachother and add value quickly. Your posse trust you -- they have riddenout with you before -- you have been there for them in the past. So,these are folks you have known for some time and who like and supportyou. They come to your rescue [or join your campaign to solve a problem]quickly precisely because they can understand what you are up againstand can help without distracting."
Probably the clearest example so far of the posse approach to globalproblem solving is in public health. Take the example of the revivedcampaign to eradicate malaria, led by Ray Chambers, the private equitypioneer and UN Special Envoy on malaria. The Malaria No More campaignhas the two key characteristics of a posse.
First, there's the goal, which is certainly specific -- malaria nomore. The fact that a child dies every 45 seconds from this preventabledisease is also enough to persuade most people that this is a worthwhilenecessary goal. It is achievable, since malaria has been eradicated inother countries. Second, it is a coalition. Chambers, blessed by the UN,is the sheriff, but he is not working alone. Indeed, the biggestcontribution is coming from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, whichhas used its own cash to breathe life into malaria research but also,crucially, to leverage others. The Global Fund that Gates seeded is aspecial purpose vehicle, the posse as an institution, created to poolmoney from governments, philanthropy and business. Together with theMalaria No More campaign, the Global Fund has mobilized a diversecoalition, from governments to big companies to celebrities, to bringsufficient resources to be bear to solve the problem (The Global Fund isalso a unique institution of global governance where the board is madeup not just of the usual rich countries but also representatives fromdeveloping countries, civil society, philanthropic and the privatesector. The World Bank, by contrast, is run by governments alone andcontrolled by the rich countries, which have the lion's share of thevoting rights because it is their cash.)
Will the malaria posse succeed? Let us hope so -- and not just becausethat will save millions of lives. Its success is crucial if it is toinspire other posses to take on other challenges. Happily, more possesare forming already. The Elders, the Richard Branson inspired and NelsonMadela anointed group of former heads of state and moral leaders, hasannounced that it wants to end child marriage within a generation. Maybethis is merely a high-minded aspiration (we hope not); if they areserious, they will need to form a serious posse.
A world of posses will appall some people. The posse, they object, is arelic of a lawless, institution-less past. Yet maybe we need to acceptthat a multi-polar world in which the G7 countries are no longerdominant, and the traditional multilateral agencies such as the UN areclearly limited, is more like the Wild West than, say, Switzerland. Butwe suspect that the time has come to update Otto von Bismarck's famouscomment that "politics is the art of the possible" to "social change isthe art of the posse-able."
Matthew Bishop and Michael Green are coauthors of Philanthrocapitalism:How Giving Can Save the World. Bishop is New York Bureau Chief of TheEconomist. Green is an independent writer and consultant.