Viewpoint: A new trio for our times

By Andrew L. Yarrow

The era of dumb, dissed and dysfunctional government may be ending. Cynicism, cronyism and conventional political wisdom are threatened as a new, transnational political culture of idealism, activism, and potential multi-partisan cooperation dawns.

This is not yet another encomium to Barack Obama. Instead, looking at the symbolism and politics of three new (or newish) leaders on three continents, it appears that the democratic world may be entering an age as different and defining as those of two other transformations: the FDR/Keynes/social democratic post-World War II "liberal consensus" and the Thatcher/Friedman/Reagan conservative ascendancy of the last three decades.

So, how might this be the age Barack Obama, Nicolas Sarkozy, and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva?

The threads that draw America's president-elect and the presidents of France and Brazil together are in the symbolism of who they are and their effects on their people as well as their politics and policies.
Politically, all three are more than rhetorically post-partisan. They espouse ideas and promote policies at odds with significant parts of their core constituencies. They cross political divides in surprising ways - from Mr. Obama's eloquent discussion of family and values to Mr. da Silva's embrace of global market capitalism to Mr. Sarkozy's calls for social solidarity and a "rupture" with French state capitalism.

They share a desire for greater social justice in a modern world that has benefited many but left many others hurt and trembling. They believe in helping Brazil's desperately poor, France's immigrants and unemployed, and America's legions without savings, health care or decent jobs not through Great Society-style handouts but what one observer of Mr. da Silva has called "conditional responsibility."

Certainly, there were glimmers of this in Republican and Clinton-era welfare reform, but the three men share a commitment to social compassion-with-personal responsibility writ large. Mr. Obama, Mr. da Silva and Mr. Sarkozy - emerging from left-liberal or statist milieus - have thrown off old-leftist shibboleths of anti-capitalist etatisme, while strongly embracing the need for greater government regulation and activism in building a more just, prosperous and sustainable world.

The three have discarded the global go-it-alone-ism of Gaullism, the Bush administration, and the old geopolitical obstructionism of what were once called "nonaligned nations." Instead, the three leaders stand strongly for global interconnectedness in a way that has been sorely lacking since the early days of the United Nations - on climate change, humanitarian intervention, poverty and disease reduction, migration, and reinvigorating diplomacy and international institutions. None are sycophants for globalization, yet each could be more forthright in supporting free trade.

Symbolically, the three men - their backgrounds, their styles and their political modus operandi - give a new meaning to the dismissive phrase, apropos of leadership who came before them, of being "so 20th century." As an African-American man with a Christian and Muslim, Kenyan and Kansan, single mother-to-Harvard background, Mr. Obama is today's world at its best - a world beyond race and cultural division and one of the promise of democracy and opportunity. Sans an elite Ecole Nationale d'Administration pedigree, with an immigrant and Jewish background, and a supermodel spouse shaking cobwebs from the Elysee Palace, Mr. Sarkozy has brought a curious mix of flair and inclusiveness to a hidebound society whose leadership class had strayed far from the ideals of liberte, egalite, fraternite. Mr. da Silva, a once-rough-and-tumble union leader from the slums of Sao Paulo, has successfully expanded the market-based reforms of his predecessor while raising living standards for the poor, making Brazil the darling of investors from Wall Street to Shanghai as well as his flag-waving, working-class supporters.

All three are enormously public public figures. Mr. Obama's ecstatic throngs, likely to bring the largest crowd in U.S. history to Washington on Jan. 20, and his viral Internet presence speak to a sort of "people's democracy" that historians can only weakly search for analogues in Teddy Roosevelt and Andrew Jackson. A similar popular fervency has surrounded "Lula" since before his first successful presidential campaign in 2002. While Mr. Sarkozy may not have the street or Web allure of his transatlantic counterparts, he seizes the diplomatic and media stage with gusto to push peace from Georgia to Darfur and financial-market reform from Brussels to Washington.

In one sense, this is a tale of three men with charisma, and of the triumph of opportunity and ideals over entrenched power. But, from Mr. Obama's stunningly self-controlled demeanor and Mr. da Silva's electrifying presence to Mr. Sarkozy's high-profile romantic life, these are men who are cool in multiple senses of this wonderfully nuanced word. With each, politics isn't boring. And they have galvanized their people and their aspirations. While each nation still has its share of business-as-usual politicians, these three have made political life engaging, hip and hopeful.

And there's the added promise. Beyond the potential for policy reforms that bring about greater socioeconomic inclusiveness, redefine the respective roles of markets and governments in ways that promote broad-based economic growth, and foster greater international cooperation and understanding, this trio of leaders can help dispel decades of cynicism about government and public service. Echoes of JFK notwithstanding, Mr. Obama, probably more than the other two, represents an enticement for citizens to actively care about their country and world: On the one hand, this means choosing personally to serve whether in the public sector or other roles; on the other, it means recognizing that policy-making requires an engaged, informed citizenry ready to make hard choices rather choosing the easy out of disengagement, disdain and demagoguery.

Yes, the world goes far beyond Washington, Paris, and Brasilia. Yes, China is the economic goliath changing our planet. And yes, there are all too many less-than-democratic corners of the world.

But, as the Obama mantra has it: Change is in the air. While politics and governing will continue to be littered with more defeats than victories, the substance and style of these three leaders point to an era of hope, inspiration, and perhaps even problem-solving.

Andrew L. Yarrow, vice president and Washington director of Public Agenda, a nonpartisan think tank, is the author of "Forgive Us Our Debts: The Intergenerational Dangers of Fiscal Irresponsibility," published by Yale University Press this year, and teaches at American University.