What Actual Democratic Socialist Governance Looks Like
Democratic socialist governance means direct public action, not studies, not partnerships, not consultant grift. We build things.
Kill Consultant Class First
Day one, we cancel McKinsey, Deloitte, Accenture, and Booz Allen contracts. We use state employees. We build internal capacity. We accept initial messiness over permanent extraction.
Government employees are prevented from doing work so consultants can extract billions. We end this immediately. Employees do the work. We build capacity. We deliver services.
Direct Public Action
We announce “we’re building 5,000 public housing units starting next month.” Not studies, not credits, not partnerships. Direct public construction. Union workers are hired. We provide clear timeline and budget. We create public ownership forever.
We announce “we’re buying electric buses and hiring drivers this month.” Routes are based on where people live and work. Service starts in 90 days. No consultant reports are needed.
This is what governance looks like when it serves people instead of consultants.
Transparency and Speed
Everything is public in real time. Every contract, every meeting, every dollar. Transparency makes extraction visible and embarrassing. Speed demonstrates competence and seriousness.
We don’t spend two years studying whether to build housing. We build housing and iterate based on what we learn. We don’t hire consultants to recommend we hire more consultants. We hire workers and deliver services.
Open Source Everything
All custom government IT is released as open source. States share code. We break vendor lock-in completely. Government IT can be built rapidly when consultants aren’t extracting. Alaska Business Network example: less than one week to build versus 18 months and $5 million from consultants.
Open source means transparency, means shared improvement, means no vendor lock-in. It’s obviously correct policy.
Community Control
We don’t hold “public comment” theater where community input is ignored. We create elected boards with actual budget authority. We enable participatory budgeting for major spending. We give real power to communities.
Community members know local needs better than distant bureaucrats or consultants. Give them power and resources. Let them decide priorities.
Cooperative Procurement
Worker cooperatives get first opportunity on all government contracts. If cooperative can deliver at competitive price and quality, they win. This is detailed in government procurement.
Developer cooperative that can build system for $200,000 beats Deloitte bid of $2 million. Maintenance cooperatives replace extractive service contractors. IT cooperatives replace consulting monopolies. Existing contract workers are supported in forming cooperatives to bid on rebid contracts.
What This Changes
Government becomes competent. Money goes to services, not extraction. Workers benefit instead of consultants. Communities have power. Housing gets built. Transit runs. Services improve.
This isn’t utopian. This is basic competent governance without corporate capture.
Concrete Examples
Seattle builds 5,000 units of public housing in year one using direct public construction, union labor, and mixed-income model. Rents are set at 25% of income. Units are beautiful, well-built, and permanent.
California cancels consultant contracts for high-speed rail. State employees finish the project in three years at one-third projected cost. Rail operates reliably and serves communities.
Massachusetts implements single-payer healthcare. Insurance company extraction ends. Administrative overhead drops 50%. Everyone is covered, costs decrease, outcomes improve.
New York rebuilds subway using public employees and worker cooperative contractors. Costs drop from $2 billion per mile to $200 million per mile. Projects finish on time. Service improves.
Integration With Full Platform
Breaking corruption enables this. Progressive taxation funds it. Worker cooperatives deliver services. Community control ensures it serves actual needs. Anti-monopoly prevents re-capture.
This is what democratic socialist governance looks like. Not rhetoric. Action. Not promises. Results. Not extraction. Service.