Democratic Resource Allocation

I propose a new democratic mechanism that would allow us to address a wide range of intractable problems, from the death of local businesses to income inequality and global climate change.

Many of our most challenging problems—the City’s and the nation’s—result from a failure to set reasonable social priorities. That’s been true for a long time. What’s new is that multiple crises have now made creative solutions both urgently necessary and politically feasible.

The solution I propose is a new direct democratic mechanism that would gradually shift resources in accordance with the priorities we set together. It’s something like participatory budgeting, but it isn’t limited to capital funding, or to government projects. It can work to address almost any public issue that’s not a simple Yes-No question but rather one about degree. Among many other things, it could support education and the arts and services for the elderly, reduce carbon emissions and income inequality, and help us strike the right balance between policing and alternative modes of crime prevention and social services.

Interactive Demonstration: Protecting Small Businesses & the UWS Streetscape

The best way to get a sense of it is to try it out, so I made a demo of a voting system to address one, long-standing, highly local problem: how, after all these years, to start protecting the small businesses that enrich our lives on the UWS. Try it out, and afterwards there’s plenty more explanation available. Or, if you prefer the fuller explanation beforehand, click the Explanation First button and try out the demo afterwards. Either way, keep in mind that this is both a specific proposal for how to solve this one problem and an example of a new technique for addressing a wide range of issues.

Try It Out Explanation First