Revolutionary Governance through Citizen’s Assemblies, Expert Councils, & Direct Action: Achieving Post-Scarcity in 8 Simple Steps…

The release of an Extinction Rebellion (XR) presentation on citizen’s assemblies by Linda Doyle, external coordinator of the XR citizen assembly working group, helps return the focus to the citizen’s assembly. The talk mentions guides from XR on how to run citizen assemblies for public policy (and people assemblies for spontaneous direct action) that will be valuable to the initial stages of the revolutionary process.

When the governance implementation process is outlined as it is below, post-scarcity becomes more theoretically attainable. The proposal includes a citizen’s assembly, expert council, and direct control if need be through a verification process — all observable by the public online, where anyone can approve, suggest other features, or complain about a process. If enough complaints build up without a correction, a neighboring expert council is alerted to fix the problem.

What is advocated here is a personal-to-global infrastructure management system, with enactment fueled by love (regenerative culture) and rage (against neoliberalism).

1. The citizens’ assembly begins with general and open framings; defines the multitude of problems that amount to the current crisis; XR crucially points out the need for transparency that should continue as the process advances.
2. Experts and designers map out the problem areas for presentation and interaction with the general public.
3. Expert councils form around these problem areas to pose solutions.
4. Experts and designers map out the entirety of the global infrastructure in an approachable and elegant manner to view and potentially interact with online.
5. Councils create departments to enable research and executive focus.
6. Councils augment then replace traditional governmental and corporate systems as they become obsolete.
7. Citizen’s assemblies form as needed in times of crisis, but ideally expert councils manage themselves.
8. As user interfaces, AI, and robotics and automation advances, the need for expert councils will dissolve into a direct democratic process as needed, unless a crisis or an overhaul of infrastructure requires gathering experts.

Then watch what generations do when no longer preoccupied with institutional constraints, wage slavery, or survival.