If we could vote where a % of are tax money headed, it would force areas of government to justify themselves and prove they are worthy of us sending a % to them.
Sort of a DHF for where our taxes go? If this could be modified to support things for a number of years so there is sustainable funding to see things through, that would be good.
Flip the script and empower people to put their money toward the things they see as important,
There are some places where smaller versions of this are being piloted, something like community accounting where there is a pot for a service or activity and the community decides expenditure.
I agree, debate, or sometimes, even just conversation explaining something, are really important. We have moved back to in person meetings (usually 25-30 people in a meeting) as the dialogue is richer and deeper. We had an issue over the summer last year where there were a lot of polarised views (some of those exacerbated by the behaviour by one of the regional authority) but an open conversation in one of our in person meetings, where everyone had a chance to understand what was happening, turned everything around. It was a very quiet and ordered conversation - no raised voices or anger (or frustration at not being heard), but I guess some of that is that these people have been working together for many years and the meetings are well-managed - people know they will get an opportunity to speak.