The New Politics Institute itself is evolving and adapting to what we have learned since our founding in May 2005. Here is the Founding Document (May 10th) that started off our efforts:
NPI Founding Document
The New Politics Institute (NPI) has been established by people from across the country and across the political spectrum to help progressives succeed on the dynamic new battlefield of 21st century politics.
The New Politics Institute is a think tank for politics. Working like a conventional policy-oriented think tank, NPI will assemble some of the finest minds in progressive politics, the non-profit world and the private sector to study, master, incubate and promote new strategies, technologies and techniques for the rapidly changing politics of this new century.
NPI’s staff and Fellows will focus on three developments which are fundamentally transforming the daily practice of progressive politics. They are:
The rise of the conservative movement – Through the shrewd investment of billions of dollars over a generation, the conservative movement has built a powerful 21st century political machine that has transformed American politics and culture, among other things ending the 100-year-long dominance of progressive thought and politics. NPI will help progressives better understand this new machine and offer strategies for taking it on each day.
The emergence of a different America – Rapidly changing demographic, socio-economic and attitudinal trends are forging a 21st century America very different from the 20th century America around which progressives constructed their long and successful majority coalition. Building on the path breaking work of The New Democrat Network’s New Majority Coalition Project and its Hispanic Project, NPI will help progressives develop modern strategies for understanding and reaching the coming America of the 21st century.
The end of the Broadcast era, the arrival of a new age of media, marketing and communications – The aggressive march of the Internet, broadband, digital recording devices, mobile technologies and modern databases is profoundly transforming the average citizen’s relationship to information. For over forty years American politics has been organized around the Broadcast model. That model – from one to many – is giving way to a new, dynamic and evolving model that is little understood and not commonly practiced. This new era of media, marketing and communications is already very different from the Broadcast era, and will be more personal, more intimate, more participatory, more iterative, more decentralized, more real-time and increasingly multi-media. Helping progressives understand and master the strategies, technologies and techniques of this new era will be one of NPI’s highest priorities.
NPI will have its primary offices in the Bay Area and Washington, DC, but will draw on a network of Fellows from across the country. Staff and Fellows will attempt to modernize the practice of progressive politics through presentations, private and public briefings and commentary in the media.
