[This article was originally published in HealthcarePapers, Volume 9, Number 1.]

Multi-sector, broad legislative support for obesity policy is of critical importance to successful system-level implementation and sustainability. To win such support, policy-makers should consider the adoption of a "post-partisan" decision-making process and governance structure whose features include: the involvement of multi-sector and cross-partisan decision-makers from the very beginning of planning and policy debate; the necessity that all participants disclose their competing interests; and the use of analytical techniques to synthesize and select the most innovative ideas from among all those considered. Post-partisanship therefore differs from traditional political compromise; it is an action-oriented, values-based model that embraces an aggressive commitment to collaboration, innovation, intellectual diversity, and building ongoing relationships across sectors and across partisan lines in order to pursue lasting public health solutions.

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