Core Assumptions and Definitions

Principles and Assumptions

• The purpose of both healthy governance and economic systems is to promote the well-being of people as individuals and as a society.
• A healthy economy needs rules that govern how the economy works (e.g., anti-trust laws, safety standards, property rights, environmental safeguards, etc.).
• The governance system is responsible for setting those rules and, as such, there is a need for a level of independence of the governance system from the economic system so that those rules can be fairly set and enforced.
• A healthy system of governance that promotes well-being must meet core economic preconditions that are sufficient for people to meaningfully and equitably participate in governance.
• A healthy system of governance that promotes well-being cannot be effective with an economic system that does the opposite.

About Governance:

• Individual well-being, societal well-being, and planetary well-being are intrinsically linked; one cannot be achieved absent another.
• Healthy systems of governance are essentially mechanisms for collective agency. They represent a social contract in which the polity ascribes to a balance between agency, trust, and authority to further their individual and collective good. For example, governance essentially codifies hierarchies of power that place limits on individual and group agency. Ideally, those individuals/groups must believe that limits on their agency are for the collective good or for their own good.
• How this balance is established depends on a variety of contextual factors, such as:
  
• How the social contract implicitly defines “collective good.” For example, a neo-liberal model of governance limits that collective good to economic growth and security, while a social democracy model also includes aspects of social welfare.
  
• The degree to which a social contract actually exists (e.g., the degree to which the polity has consented to be governed). Some systems are based on highly coercive power hierarchies that severely limit agency and trust, although arguably these systems are less healthy because of this lack of balance.
  
• Cultural norms around individual rights vs. the collective good. Some systems that prioritize individual liberty may have lower levels of trust, but the overall system is still largely balanced and stable.
  
• How different communities are treated within a polity. Marginalized individuals and groups are often subject to more coercive government power and/or limits on their agency. To ensure well-being, healthy systems of governance need to be able to address these imbalances in a trustworthy fashion.
  
• A healthy system of governance is one where the interplay between trust, agency, and authority is relatively stable, changes as needed, and can withstand and/or recover from shocks and disruptions.
• A healthy system of governance that supports individual and collective well-being requires these five key elements, which work in an interconnected and mutually supporting way:
• Being Together. Pathways to strengthen and improve connectivity to each other, to future generations, and to nature. Healthy governance requires building and maintaining healthy relationships. To increase our collective and individual well-being, we need to improve our digital and non-digital infrastructure, and increase the circulation and exchange of trustworthy information.
• Working Together. Pathways to increase our individual and collective agency over the issues that affect our lives. We need processes to collaboratively solve problems, constructively deal with conflicts, and address power imbalances—without perpetuating harm.
• Weaving Together. Pathways to help us respect and interweave our different cultures, values, identities and stories. We need to embrace rather than try to eliminate differences, and find ways to make constructive use of the tension between perspectives. Weaving together will allow us to find new ways forward, and work to heal past and systemic trauma and injustice.
• Deciding Together. Pathways to create trustworthy and legitimate decision-making processes and structures. Collectives need effective and fair ways to set priorities, make decisions, and define rules for handling issues of common concern. Deciding together processes should protect and promote individual and societal well-being.
• Caring Together. Pathways to strengthen and improve the social compact. We need to shift our systems towards a greater ability to care for each other, our environment and the interests of future generations. In order to ensure that people feel cared for and have their needs met, we need to normalize and implement adaptable governance processes and enforce shared rules.

About Pro-social:

• A pro-social perspective is values-based and not necessarily universally shared (e.g., we do not assume our values are universally shared.) We also assume that pro-social includes a healthy relationship between people and their natural environments. See our definition of pro-social below.

About the Digital Age:

• Human beings will need to be more assertive in centering humanity / humanness to ensure that digital technologies are in service of human well-being.
• An increasing number of people will seek out and join online communities, but online communities may not be viable options for some, whether by choice or lack of access. However, this will not necessarily decrease people’s interest and need for place-based communities.
• An important way that power is accumulated and exercised is through designing and using technology to collect, analyze, and disseminate data and information.
• Aggregation of data can result in both pro-social and anti-social outcomes, such as rapid development of vaccines or polarization of voters by domestic or foreign actors. Data aggregation can also curtail individual agency. Pro-social digital platforms, laws, and regulation are needed to promote individual and collective agency and balance the power over others wielded by platforms and government.
• There will be a potential asymmetry of power favoring those seeking anti-social aims (e.g., to sow fear, disseminate dis- and misinformation, promote animosity, etc.) over those seeking pro-social aims.

About Well-being:

• The desire for well-being is universal, even though some religious and cultural practices emphasize finding meaning, purpose, and well-being through suffering and deprivation.
• Individual and collective well-being is derived from the balance created from ensuring the simultaneous well-being of other humans, nature, ancestors, and future generations.

About People:

• On the whole, people are basically good and capable, and most want to do good for themselves and for the people and things to which they feel connected.
• People need the agency to choose the identities most salient to them.

Definitions

Agency: The ability to identify and act in one’s individual or collective interest; the ability to perceive a choice, make a choice, and act on that choice.

Authority: The ability to influence the behavior and choices of others based on a position within a power hierarchy and/or other power norms.

Collective: Denotes the interests, priorities, and resources that are shared by a community, and which cannot be disaggregated to the individual.

Community: A group of people who are connected via a shared identity, belief, or purpose and whose relationships and interactions are guided by shared norms.

Digital age: An era in which technology allows for unprecedented levels of ubiquitous, real-time interconnectedness and exchange of information among humans, even though access will not be even across society (e.g., how electrification became common enough that it was assumed most people and
households had access to electricity).

Dignity: A state of existence in which a person’s fundamental rights and physical, emotional, and mental needs are universally respected and equally valued.

Governance: How groups of people make decisions, identify, codify, enforce rules, and organize collectively to further their well-being.

Government: Responsive service delivery infrastructure and formal processes for collective decision making, rulemaking, and accountability.

Identity: The characteristics, beliefs, or roles that define an individual or group within a larger social system.

Planetary: A framework acknowledging our systemic interdependence with the wider world around us, based on the belief that human and natural systems are inextricably interconnected. It also accepts that many problems need to be dealt with at a planetary scale and not at a national or even international level.
(This view contrasts with a “global” mindset which tends to emphasize nation state interests and power dynamics without regard to implications for the health of the planet as a whole.)

Polity: A group of people with a shared belief in the legitimacy of an institutionalized government.

Power: The ability to influence one’s own behavior and choices (power to) and/or the behavior and choices of others (power over), either individually or collectively (power with).

Pro-social: A perspective that prioritizes the health and well-being of people (including the natural resources that support them), seeks to further their individual and collective well-being, and emphasizes social cohesion, a respect for interdependencies, and planetary well-being.

Trust: Exists on a scale from low to high levels of trust—from trusting people to act in their own, self-defined interest; to a belief that others (and/or institutions) will do as they say, and act in predictable ways; to a belief that the behavior and choices of others will, at least, not adversely affect one’s own interests; to
a belief that others will act in your interest even if you cannot.

Trustworthy: Acting in ways that increase the probability of engendering trust; consistently acting with integrity.

Well-being: The conditions under which human beings find purpose, dignity, and belonging within the social, natural, and digital worlds.