Democratic Leadership in Fractious Times

Sep 19, 2025

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In this episode of For the Good of the Public podcast, Michael and Phebe present a talk from Eduard Heger, former Prime Minister of Slovakia. Eduard shares the challenges he faced leading Slovakia from 2021 to 2023, through the escalation of the Russian-Ukraine war, a pandemic and an energy crisis. He focuses on what is required of leaders in tumultuous times–moral, integrity and character–to help build a resilient society for a more positive and better future.

Watch the video recording of this talk on YouTube!

“What we need in this moment are leaders who are willing to tell the truth, who are honest about the challenges that their people are facing, who respond with care and compassion and have a spirit of generosity, and Eduard Heger is a leader like this.” -Phebe [01:44]

“One of the things we try to do throughout our summit, but really throughout the whole of the work at CCPL, is help to expand and reground our imagination for what public leadership can look like, the kinds of values that can ground public leadership and motivate it.” -Michael [03:14]

“Serving politics is about serving. Nobody really believes that anymore, because they think it’s about ruling. Well we know that if you want to rule, you must start with serving, because actually serving, that’s how you rule the best. It’s not in your interest. It’s for the interest of society, of the good, of human mankind.” -Eduard [24:20]

TIMESTAMPS

[00:00] Intro

[04:50] Governing Slovakia in unprecedented times

[06:59] What’s going on in the World today

[13:47] In the digital era

[17:07] Building a strong resilient society

[23:54] Serving politics

[32:02] Outro

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