ISS MONTHLY NEWSLETTER

Each month, Innovations for Successful Societies publishes an email newsletter, highlighting recently-published case studies and related interviews. To learn more about how local leaders around the globe are generating and implementing effective reforms, sign up to receive our newsletter.

ISS MONTHLY NEWSLETTER

February 2023

Enhancing Fairness: Wisconsin Experiments with Nonpartisan Election Administration

What might induce politicians from opposing parties to join in creating a nonpartisan elections management body? In the wake of a 2001 scandal over the use of government employees to assist political campaigns, public interest groups in the US state of Wisconsin pushed for adoption of nonpartisan governance of its ethics and elections boards and found a champion in moderate Republican senator Michael G. Ellis. Five years of negotiation came to fruition in 2007, when the state senate and assembly voted to create a consolidated election and ethics agency directed by retired judges. The first nonpartisan election administration authority of its type in the United States, the new agency, called the Government Accountability Board, replaced a system that had vested governance of elections in a commission made up of members of both major parties. But eight years later, political alignments shifted. Arguing that the board had overreached in its handling of certain sensitive cases, state legislators in 2015 voted to shutter the institution and reverted to the pre-2007 system run by representatives of the two major political parties. This case illuminates both the circumstances that can drive politicians to introduce a nonpartisan election management system and the challenges associated with the design, implementation, and sustainability of the approach.

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Cape Town Resevoir


Defending the Vote:France Acts to Combat Foreign Disinformation -After a hack-and-leak operation that targeted a candidate in France’s 2017 presidential election and a social media campaign against the country’s exports in 2020, the French government decided to take steps to protect its politics from foreign digital interference. With another national election approaching in April 2022, Lieutenant Colonel Marc- Antoine Brillant began designing a new unit that aimed to detect foreign information manipulation while preserving freedom of speech by separating responsibility for identification of attacks from responsibility for framing and executing a response. After the proposal cleared legal hurdles, Brillant’s team, under the authority of the Secretariat- General for National Defense and Security, set up an interagency governance system, initiated a dialogue with social media platforms, and monitored social media to detect hostile campaigns. During the 2022 campaign, the unit, called Viginum, identified five foreign interference attempts and referred them to other parts of government that could decide whether and how to react. The elections ran smoothly, and the Viginum team started to focus on building stronger public understanding of its mission and activities.

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Innovations for Successful Societies (ISS) is a program of Princeton University's
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ISS Monthly Newsletter Archive

January 2023

September 2022

July 2022

April 2022

March 2022

January 2022

October 2021

September 2021

August 2021

July 2021

June 2021

January 2021

November/December 2020

October 2020

September 2020

July 2020

May 2020

April 2020

February 2020

December 2019/January 2020

November 2019

October 2019 - Seattle Earthquake Preparedness

September 2019 - Indoneisa Anti-Corruption

August 2019 - Amazon Rainforest

July 2019 - Tirana, Albania

June 2019 - Early Childhood Development Urban95

May 2019- Vietnam Health

April 2019 - Uganda Revenue Authority

February 2019 - Cape Town Water

January 2019 - Ethiopia Health

December 2018 - Ethiopia Tax

November 2018 - Colombia Health

October 2018 - South Africa Health

September 2018 - Rwanda Health, South Bend Smart City

August 2018- Vietnam Tax Chicago Smart City

July 2018 - Nuevo León Police

June 2018 - US Ebola Response

May 2018 - Rwanda Revenue Authority

April 2018 - Indonesia Tax

March 2018 - Human Trafficking

February 2018 - Liberia Payroll US TIGER

January 2018 - US Heirs Property

December 2017- Indonesia Land Agency

November 2017 - India Open Defecation

October 2017: Anti-Corruption Series

September 2017: Rwanda Land, Colombia Coffee

August 2017: Indonesia Corruption , Brazil Soy

July 2017: Tanzania and Australia Land

June 2017: Reforming Procurement Systems in South Africa

May 2017: Tunisia Open Government

April 2017: Liberia Ebola Response

March 2017: Land Administration

February 2017: Brazil Anti Corruption

January 2017: Property Rights & Land Administration

December 2016: Reconciling the Impossible: South Africa's Government of Unity

November 2016: The Ongoing Drive for Sustainable Cattle Ranching in Brazil

October 2016: Managing Tense Elections

September 2016: Indonesia's 2014 Presidential Transition

August 2016: Reforming Brazil's Military

July 2016: Graduates to Government: The President's Young Professionals Program In Liberia

June 2016: Delivering on Presidential Goals in the Dominican Republic

May 2016: Pockets of Effectiveness in Senegal and Indonesia

April 2016: Evaluation in Benin & Croatia Defense Reform

March 2016: Powersharing in Tunisia and Kenya

February 2016: Morocco Water, Tunisia Microfinance

January 2016: Mexico Veracruz and Ghana Presidential Transition

December 2015: Peru and Kenya Judiciaries

November 2015: Protecting Forests, Mitigating Climate Change

October 2015: Open Government Partnership

September 2015: Mexico's Presidential Transition

August 2015 Indonesia Military

July 2015: Kenya 2030 Strategy

June 2015: Calderon's Prexidency in Mexico, Anti Corruption in Luthuania

 May 2015: Bihar India Modernizing Systems to Improve Service Delivery

 April 2015: Two New Case Studies on the Philippines

 March 2015: Monitoring Kosovo's Courts 

 February 2015: Pakistan's Citizen Feedback Monitoring Program

 January 2015: ISS Announces a New Online Course

 January 2015: Reducing Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon 

December 2014: Lagos State and Vietnam: Promoting Reform at the Local Level 

November 2014: Political Transitions in Chile

October 2014: Tunisian Elections

 September 2014: Strategy Development in Serbia and Estonia

 August 2014: Strategy Development in Malayasia

 July 2014: Effective Reforms in Brazil

June 2014: Public Sector Innovation in Mexico

May 2014: Short-Route Accountability in Afghanistan

April 2014: Elections in India

March 2014: Transforming Citizen Services

February 2014: Short-Route Accountability in Indonesia & the Philippines

January 2014: Anti-Corruption Agencies

December 2013: South Africa's Transition to a Non-Racial Democracy

November 2013: Reform Leaders on Effective and Accountable Civil Service

October 2013: Improving Policy Management and Service Delivery

September 2013: Combatting Corruption and Mediating Election Conflict

 August 2013: Improving Service Delivery and Reducing Election Violence 

July 2013: Increasing Accountability and Efficiency in Civil Service

June 2013: Government Delivery Units

May 2013: Anti-Corruption Commissions

April 2013: Election Reforms in Zambia and other Countries

March 2013: Civil Service Reforms in Brazil

February 2013: Infrastructure Projects, Government Investments and Obstacles

 January 2013: Anti-Corruption Efforts in the Baltics and Nigerian Elections

December 2012: Reforming City Management in Palmero and Johannesburg

November 2012: ISS Marks 100 Case Studies

October 2012: Kenya Open Data and the Rapid Results Approach

September 2012: Cabinet Reform and Anti-Corruption Agencies

August 2012: City Management in Bangalore and Rapid Results in Madagascar

July 2012: Indonesian and Georgian Reforms

June 2012: Revenue Collection in Liberia

May 2012: Center of Government in the Batics

April 2012: Indonesian Accountability and Nigerian Electoral Reform

March 2012: Improving Government Accountability, Leading Reform

Spring 2012 Newsletter

Summer 2012 Newsletter