The inherited policy structure has left citizens facing four conditions for which the current system has no adequate response.
- Livelihood insecurity, where conditional welfare denies the safety it is meant to provide.
- Weakened social and physical fabric, where resilience has been sacrificed to efficiency.
- Bureaucracies that no longer respond to democratic voice, having promoted consumer choice as the dominant preference, and;
- Conditional support that traps citizens in dependency, penalising contribution rather than rewarding it.
| Giant | Condition | Structural Answer | Goal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Insecure | Conditional welfare denies the safety it promises | Safety | Secure |
| Weakened | Infrastructure decayed; resilience traded for efficiency | Strength | Strong |
| Ignored | Consumer choice has eclipsed democratic voice | Democracy | Participating |
| Trapped | Conditional support discriminates between contributions | Contribution | Free |
Each Giant has a structural response, not an exhortation. Safety is established by removing conditionality from access to basic services, not by asking people to qualify harder. Strength is built by investing in physical and social resilience, not by asking people to be more individually independent. Democracy is restored by modernising democratic practice at the level where decisions are taken, not by telling people to be more engaged. Contribution is freed by removing the obstacles that discriminate between forms of effort and reward, not by asking people to conform more strictly.
Safety
Provide unconditional access to basic services that meet common basic needs. Establish a basic guarantee of safety that frees citizens to engage with their intrinsic motivations and pursue avenues of contribution of their choice. Unconditional access to basic services that meet common basic needs.
Strength
Build social and physical infrastructures that create a resilient foundation at every level of the society in order to cushion the impacts of future shocks: pandemics, financial crises, conflicts, and the disruptions that planetary limits will impose.
Democracy
Modernise democratic practice, starting at the local level so that it is capable of supporting the devolved and distributed decision-taking necessary to establish resilient social and physical infrastructures. Social cohesion and the efficacy of collective decision-taking are interdependent factors for high-functioning human societies.
Contribution
Free citizens to make whatever contribution they are motivated to, without losing their basic safety. Combine universal entitlements to basic services with simple taxes that do not discriminate between different forms of compensation and reward.