Working across the ideological spectrum is a design requirement for our work. The challenge we’re taking on and the moment we’re in both demand it: a government that reliably delivers has to survive changes in who holds power, and the appetite to fix it already exists in both parties. So we built the organization — and we build our coalitions — to work across the spectrum.
America so often has divided government that any strategy depending on one party’s dominance spends most of its life under unfriendly management. And state capacity reforms aren’t like a tax cut; they take years of sustained implementation, which leaves them exposed to neglect whenever control changes hands.
“State capacity for me, but not for thee’ doesn’t work. It results in capacity for no one. No one can get anything done, government fails the public, and it’s one more nail in democracy’s coffin.”
Jennifer Pahlka · Co-founder, Board Chair, and Senior Advisor, Recoding America, in "What DOGE Could Have Done" (Eating Policy, June 2026)
The most durable coalition isn’t built inside one party. It’s built between people in both who see structural dysfunction as urgent and want ambitious reform.
Working across the spectrum doesn’t mean papering over differences or settling on the lowest common denominator. We invest in helping constituencies across the spectrum develop their own reform visions first, because a coalition in which no one has done their own intellectual work rests on vague agreement.
Our role is to move those distinct perspectives toward an ambitious, politically tractable landing zone: bolder than what any one faction would accept if it felt like someone else’s idea, and more durable than what any could achieve alone.
Our staff, board, and advisory council span the spectrum, with affiliations reaching from the left to the center to the right. That range is in the room when we set priorities and make calls.
It also shapes the coalitions we build — bringing actors from across the spectrum into conversation and shared efforts to strengthen the government operating model.