Fountain leads private government session at World Economic Forum

Political Science and Public Policy professor Jane Fountain led a private session on the future of government on June 5 during the World Economic Forum Summit on the Middle East, North Africa and Eurasia in Istanbul.

The meeting brought together heads of state and government, senior ministers, business leaders and key academic experts for productive debate and discussion on how governments can build capacity to meet more effectively the increasing challenges of global and national macroeconomic inequalities and transnational political conflicts in an increasingly inter-connected world.

Fountain is vice chair of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on the Future of Government. She led the forum working session with Lord Peter Mandelson, the 2012 chair of the council. Fountain chaired the council last year and has been a member for the past four years.

The summit’s theme, "bridging regions in transformation," focused on jobs, youth education and employment, education, and range of policies, vehicles and incentives to promote economic development in the region.

During the trip, Fountain also met with key government, media, business and academic leaders, including Nursuna Memecan, one of a handful of women members of parliament in Turkey and delegate to the Council of Europe. Among other issues, they spoke of the need for greater appreciation for diversity in European politics. Fountain was interviewed on aHBR, one of the Turkey’s largest national television networks, about social media and digital government in Turkey and the region. Among the academics she met was professor Zuhre Aksoy of Bogazici University. Aksoy, an expert on international environmental politics, received her doctorate in Political Science from UMass Amherst.

Fountain directs the National Center for Digital Government, established in 2001 and based in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences and its Center for Public Policy and Administraton, and directs the SBS Science, Technology and Society Initiative. The National Center for Digital Government, a research center, regularly hosts international visiting fellows as part of its mission to build a global network of scholars focused on technology and governance.

A copy of the Future of Government report is available through the World Economic Forum website, as is more information about the Global Agenda Council on the Future of Government.