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A Topos Strategy and Research Brief PROMOTING BROAD PROSPERITY A Topos Strategy and Research Brief Produced by the Topos Partnership for Public Works: the De-mos Center for the Public Sector Topos Partnership | www.topospartnership.com Axel Aubrun | Meg Bostrom | Joe Grady De-mos | www.demos.com October 2009 ABOUT TOPOS Founded by veteran communications strategists Axel Aubrun and Joe Grady of Cultural Logic and Meg Bostrom of Public Knowledge, Topos has as its mission to explore and ultimately transform the landscape of public understanding where public interest issues play out. Our approach is based on the premise that while it is possible to achieve short-term victories on issues through a variety of strategies, real change depends on a fundamental shift in public understanding. Topos was created to bring together the range of expertise needed to understand existing issue dynamics, explore possibilities for creating new issue understanding, develop a proven course of action, and arm advocates with new communications tools to win support. www.topospartnership.com - ABOUT DEMOS Dēmos is a non-partisan public policy research and advocacy organization. Headquartered in New York City, Dēmos works with advocates and policymakers around the country in pursuit of four overarching goals: a more equitable economy; a vibrant and inclusive democracy; an empowered public sector that works for the common good; and responsible U.S. engagement in an interdependent world. Public Works: Th e Dēmos Center for the Public Sector was initiated by Dēmos as a deliberate attempt to address America’s lack of trust in, understanding of and support for the essential roles of government. Grounded in thor- ough research and refi ned through extensive fi eld-work with state organizations and national constituencies across the country, the Public Works approach to this problem has yielded enhanced understanding of how we can create a more receptive public audience for constructive conversations about government. Dēmos was founded in 2000. Miles S. Rapoport, President Tamara Draut, Vice President of Policy and Programs 220 Fifth Avenue, 5th fl oor | New York, New York 10001 | www.demos.org ABOUT THE RESEARCH Th is analysis is based on a three year investigation by Topos of American understandings of government’s role in the economy. An Exploratory phase in 2007 included an analysis of expert and advocate communications, a review of public opinion data, and a series of in-depth interviews (cognitive elicitations) with average Americans. Th e Strategy Development phase conducted in 2007—2008 included Talkback testing of explanatory messages, focus groups, and a survey. In order to verify and update the recommendations after the dramatic turn in the economy in late 2008, a new round of research was conducted in March—July 2009 including new reviews of recent public opinion research, plus more individual interviews and TalkBack testing of messages. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction.......................................................................................................................1 Executive Summary...........................................................................................................2 Methods................................................................................................................................3 The Shape of Public Understanding.............................................................................3 Good News 4 A Difficult Topic 5 A “Natural” Economy 5 Government’s Role 6 The Individual Actor Model 7 Traps......................................................................................................................................9 Individual Actor Traps 9 Strength/Health Trap 10 Socialism Trap 10 Incompetent Government Trap 10 Expert Domain Trap 11 Recommended Approach................................................................................................11 The Transformation 11 The Economic Value of “Public Structures” 12 Extending the Model 13 The Middle Class Is No Accident 14 Additional Tools for Explaining the Role of Government.............................16 Paving the Way 16 Directing the Flow of Money 18 Conclusion.........................................................................................................................20 Appendix: Research Methodology..............................................................................21 Analysis of Current Expert and Advocate Communication 21 Review of Surveys 21 Cognitive Elicitations 21 Simplifying Models Development and Re-Framing Research 21 TalkBack Testing 21 Survey Experiment 22 Endnotes.............................................................................................................................23 1 INTRODUctiON present obstacles to sustained public sector efforts to reach this goal. Since the Spring of 2007 and continuing into the Creating and sustaining broadly shared economic Summer of 2009, Public Works: The Dēmos Center prosperity in this country will require new tools, new for the Public Sector and the Topos Partnership have policies and an active role for government. This proj- collaborated on a Ford Foundation-funded effort to ect’s overall objective has been to develop a communi- create a new public conversation on the role of govern- cations frame that helps the public see: 1) government’s ment in the economy. This effort has included a wide important role in shaping the economy and 2) a way range of qualitative and quantitative research efforts, of judging the economy based on the quality of life it spanned a period of dramatic change in the nation- creates for average people. Ultimately, any new com- al economic landscape, and built on earlier research munications approach should empower people as citi- conducted by Topos principals concerning the pub- zens relative to the economy—i.e. help them see the lic’s view of government1 and public understandings economy as a public good and themselves as relevant of low wage work.2 The analysis that follows is a syn- stakeholders in and stewards of that common good. thesis of the key findings and recommendations from The new way of framing the topic should also inform 3 a number of research reports by Topos. conversations on a wide variety of particular questions about policy, helping advocates make a broad and mu- The project was inspired by a perception among advo- tually reinforcing case for policies that are responsive cates that public discourse on economic policy is con- to the needs of average Americans. strained by the American public’s views and under- standings of government’s role. It was unclear to what This research synthesis describes the existing patterns extent the public appreciated the importance of policy in public understanding that inhibit citizen action, as choices in creating economic outcomes, for instance, or well as the recommended elements of a framing ap- what kind of criteria the public tended to use in evalu- proach that will build public will and mobilize citizen ating the economy. Previous work conducted for Pub- involvement in economic policy. lic Works had made it clear that default perspectives about the nature of government make constructive di- alog difficult on a number of important topics, and the same might well be true for thinking about the econ- omy and economic policy. What kinds of communica- tions approaches might effectively overcome problem- atic patterns in public understanding? In early stages of the work, before the economic down- turn, the project identified a set of strong default pat- terns of thinking and discourse that had the power to impede public engagement on the topic. Later stages of the research were conducted in the wake of the eco- nomic upheaval and have explored related changes in these defaults and well-established patterns that re- main the same despite the dramatic change in the eco- nomic context. Without a good understanding of the obstacles they face as they advocate policies to create an economy that works well for people, communica- tors can easily run up against assumptions and misun- derstandings that hinder effective communication and 2 EXECUtiVE SUMMARY When exposed to these points, which can be ex- pressed in a variety of different ways, research respon- dents shift to more constructive perspectives that as- The economic turmoil of the past year, followed by sume a role for government. They begin to see that: high profile public debates over government actions to stimulate the economy, have undoubtedly led to more » Collective responsibility and proactive steps— public awareness of some of the ways in which gov- the actions we take as a nation (rather than as ernment intervenes in the national economy. How- individual economic actors) are what create the ever, our research indicates that these shifts in pub- outcomes we want. lic awareness are relatively superficial and that many » “Middle class” means “all of us,” so steps to help fundamental, counterproductive perspectives contin- and strengthen the middle class are steps that ue to shape public understanding of government’s role build broad-based prosperity and are in our 4 in the economy. collective interest. Most Americans are not resistant to government “in- » True prosperity rests on collective success, not terference” in the economy based on ideological views. just individual opportunity or success. Rather, the more fundamental problem is that they » Systems (like the FDIC, community colleges find it difficult to evensee that policy
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