Manifesto

We know we have enemies.

Systems, movements, doctrines and attitudes that continually hinder the growth of democracy.

Totalitarianism. Regimes in which states concentrate absolute power, suppressing all opposition and controlling citizens’ public and private lives. They destroy individual freedom and reduce human beings to cogs in the machinery of government, often trampling on their dignity and fundamental rights.

Dogmatic ideologies, because they polarise societies into irreconcilable camps and shut down rational debate. They place fanaticism above reason, moving away from the consensus and tolerance required for peaceful coexistence.

The victim mentality, because it negates personal responsibility and traps people in powerlessness and stagnation, from where they blame external factors for their problems. It restricts the fulfilment of human potential.

Fear, when it ceases to be a signal of self-preservation and becomes a mental prison that prevents us from living, growing and deciding freely.

Year-zero thinking, because it dismisses historical experience and, under the false illusion of innovating from scratch, forces us to repeat the mistakes of the past.

Dichotomies, because they push us to see the world as a binary choice.

Zero-sum games, because they hold that one party’s success requires another’s defeat, preventing cooperation for mutual benefit.

Historicism, because it assumes that history follows inevitable laws and a predetermined destiny, denying our freedom and our creativity to design better systems.

Pessimism, because it breeds apathy and distrust, opening the door to populist would-be saviours.

Corruption, in the form of abuse of power and the use of public resources for private interests, gravely weakens the rule of law and destroys citizens’ trust.

Challenges that threaten our democratic values are constantly emerging, demanding an unwavering commitment to preserving them.

We are optimists.

A democratic system can improve gradually while adapting to change.

The Foundation was created to affirm that technological progress is only real when it translates into dignity for people.

We provide the technology needed to make a new democracy possible. Technology based on digital identity will strengthen the system’s trustworthiness, security and privacy, and will give people the legitimacy to collaborate actively in public life. In doing so, we enable a new paradigm for democracy.

We support projects that help bring out the best in democracy, eliminating the flaws that weaken it and catalysing its greatest virtues.

We will work to eliminate every totalitarian attitude, promoting the development of mechanisms that enable the greatest possible plurality and generate constructive debate.

In the face of dogma and polarisation, we will encourage the use of reason and the pursuit of consensus peacefully.

In the face of the victim mentality, we will promote attitudes of personal agency and responsibility, seeking to foster social fulfilment.

We will encourage acts of courage that enable people to free themselves from constraints and grow.

In the face of year-zero thinking, we will build systems that enable small improvements, iteratively, based on gradual social engineering.

In the face of dichotomies, we will show that choices are never simply black or white, but form a spectrum of nuanced and limitless solutions.

In the face of zero-sum games, we will propose positive-sum games that build fruitful relationships benefiting every party over the long term.

Starting from nature, we believe there is room for creation. The future is not written. It is something we can and must design.

We will strive to create systems that make political corruption and abuses of power more difficult, while increasing trust in the rule of law and citizens’ trust.

We believe in technology.

We are living through an unprecedented explosion of technological innovation that offers limitless possibilities. Yet the pace of change and the complexity of adopting it are daunting and threaten to leave many people behind, fuelling extreme predictions.

Without diminishing in any way the risks that we are obliged to manage, we are optimistic: we believe we can harness and embrace certain technologies to create a better way of living together.

We know that certain technologies, when used well, can help:

• The technology underlying social networks enables instant collaboration at scale. It gives us the ability to collaborate in a decentralised way, debate and reach agreement quickly and easily.
• Artificial intelligence greatly enhances our cognitive abilities and could provide a means of enabling limitless innovation; it accelerates the application of previously unimaginable solutions in healthcare, education, energy and the protection of nature.
• The technology pioneered by the Foundation, which will ensure the trustworthiness of the system: digital identity gives citizens complete control over their privacy and the legitimacy to exercise their sovereignty in public life, creating secure democratic relationships for all stakeholders and institutions.

Our approach is to embrace technology and use its potential as a means of benefiting society.

We believe in the SELF.

We believe that real change is not dictated by structures; it is created by people within value-based systems. We want to empower every person to take control and become the true protagonist of the transformation they want to see in their own life and in society.

Our instinct for self-preservation is the purest of virtues, not a failing to be hidden. We advocate healthy self-interest: the uncompromising pursuit of personal fulfilment does not hold back progress; it drives it.

We believe that individual strength is a prerequisite for a healthy democracy. Only fully developed individuals who are guided by their own reason and free from constraints have the true capacity to collaborate, debate and build collective consensus without being manipulated by dogmatic ideologies.

We regard human beings as creators, not debtors. We reject outright any doctrine that seeks to subject the individual to perpetual debt, suffocate them with limiting beliefs or dilute them until they disappear.

We defend a strong, self-reliant self that is master of itself. Born of this natural strength, the fulfilled individual naturally expands outwards, instinctively reaching their family and friends and, later, the rest of society and nature as the arena in which life unfolds.

Because individual fulfilment does not look only inwards: it is only complete when it has an impact on the collective. We are social beings by nature, and it is through interaction with the community that our potential finds its ultimate form and purpose.

We believe in a self with the power to expand and make a positive impact on the rest of society.

We believe in education.

We believe education is the foundation that ensures a sovereign, self-possessed person exercises their freedom ethically and responsibly, turning their potential into a positive social impact.

We will promote an education that develops critical thinking and enables informed, reasoned decisions, as well as civic action grounded in democratic values.

An education capable of dismantling the enemies of democracy. Education must be positioned as a tool for transforming society in the face of movements and systems that systematically hinder the growth of democracy.

An education that builds people who can grow, develop personal agency and expand outwards towards others, achieving personal and social fulfilment.

Civitana: technology for an enhanced democracy.

The Foundation proposes Civitana.ID technology, which, together with other technologies and an ethical framework, will enhance democracy.

Technology can be used for the following purposes:

Creating mechanisms through which citizens can design initiatives: collaborate on their design, share them, debate them at in-person or digital events and, finally, support them, sign them electronically and submit them to the public institutions to which the proposal is addressed. All digitally.

This is a highly versatile mechanism for citizen collaboration. It can enable a group of citizens to collaborate on designing a sports centre, public works project or children’s playground and submit it to their local council. It can be used to debate, agree and define amendments and a position on local, regional or national draft legislation; manage a collective legal action before a court to defend consumer rights; define the guiding principles of a community project or an association of stakeholders, such as residents or families; organise a digital public demonstration expressing a public position on a social or political challenge; or develop a Popular Legislative Initiative (ILP).

This technology places citizens at the centre, enabling them to defend their interests in a legitimate, secure, verifiable, pluralistic, respectful and organised way.

Before Google reviews arrived, there was no point of reference for evaluating certain services, such as the quality of restaurants. And they changed our lives. We draw inspiration from this simple yet powerful mechanism to evaluate public services through their main user: the citizen.

We will support tools capable of evaluating the complex system of public services, from a registry office to healthcare, education, public-facing services or any other service.

The aim is to provide a simple, systematic and efficient evaluation that can subsequently be analysed from individual services upwards through the system. This will enable public officials and politicians to develop initiatives for the gradual, continuous improvement of public services.

Technologies that, together with Civitana.ID, make it possible to gauge the views of civil society truthfully, anonymously, quantifiably and verifiably on any current issue, voting intention, a formal binding consultation on a political or strategic decision, or even a referendum.

We will support initiatives that help eradicate political corruption and abuses of power in any way, particularly those that enable anonymous witness-reporting mechanisms and prevent coercion and potential retaliation by dishonest individuals.