Governance From Below:
Can Children Lead the Way?
The book is designed for adults & children – is an innovation to let children go through the book looking at pictures to get an idea of what we mean by governance from below and mutual leadership. You can read it or explain to relatively young children, telling them about the pictures and what they mean – just as you might do with any children’s book. You may be surprised at the questions your children may ask you if you read it this way. Children are particularly adept at learning through multiple intelligences!
For example, look at the end of Chapter 4 for the youtube video trailer of some schools in the Netherlands that use governance from below (particularly using a method called “sociocracy”). The music in the video was written by the children!
Music is another one of the multiple intelligences. Another example: watch the video of a little girl in Africa conducting a chorus of adults.. If it’s not clear to you that she’s in charge, start watching at about 1:20. At about 1:26 she jumps and signals “stop!” All the adult chorus and musicians instantly stop.
The aim of the book is to kick off an innovative way of thinking and doing about Governance From Below. We invite you to work with us to keep the innovation regarding mutual leadership growing. For example, leaders in hierarchical business organizations can learn to have mutual leadership relationships with their subordinates to improve morale and increase efficiency!
We will soon have an interactive conversation site, social media postings, trainings, presentations at conferences, etc. For the moment, please share your ideas with us using the contact form to be found at the Contact Us tab.
The book was just released at the end of March 2025 on LeanPub. If you order a copy, we recommend that you choose the “Read on your browser” option. The book will shortly be available on Amazon Kindle. A French language version and paper-printed copies will be available soon. (Note: if you buy now from Lean Pub we will make the paper-printed version available to you at no extra cost. Just record your name and contact information when you buy from LeanPub.)
Foreword
by Louis Sabourin
There are so many reasons why I have exceptionally accepted to write this forward. Not only was Alphonse Mekolo one of my best students in Montreal, I was also the Coordinator of his well documented thesis. I had later the possibility of following his remarkable career in his country, Cameroon, and at the United Nations. His decision to choose his colleague, John Buck, as the co-author, was key and determinate to this imaginative project.
THE COLLABORATION
It’s amazing, isn’t it, that two elderly men who grew up on two different continents with different perspectives, would write a book about governance and child leadership – and then invite me, an even more seasoned man, to join their ramble through the unknown.
THE BOOK TITLE
First, I am surprised by the title: Governance From Below: Can Children Lead the Way? It’s both challenging and provocative. I am wondering, “What power can child leaders possibly have? All three of us have certainly dealt in our time with many powerful adults, often subtle and tricky. How can children possibly lead them and not get just brushed aside?” How can a child be the leader in the complex situations people face on a daily basis?
And what about governance from below? My first thought is, “That’s a lot of whoo woo.” Although, I remember that Gandhi said, “… true democracy cannot be worked by twenty men sitting at the center. It has to be worked from below, by the people of every village.” As someone who spent his career in international studies and cooperation, I’m intrigued by the intuition that this book might be about something quite new.
THE BOOK
My intuition is right. The book offers new insights about ways to build mutual understanding and accomplishment as well as respect for our planet. We are used to thinking that wisdom and experience, key qualities of good leaders, are the proud possessions of adults who spend their lives accumulating them.
Professor Sabourin was the only Canadian to be elected President of the OECD Development Center, after being Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Director of the Institute of International Cooperation at the University of Ottawa where he became Professor Emeritus. He was invited to launch the program of International Management at the Ecole nationale d’administration in Montreal where he founded the CORIM (Canadian Council of International Affairs). He is a member of the Canada, Quebec and Montreal Orders, as well as that of several countries and international organizations.