Dreaming about a properly informed democracy

The present paradigm shift away from laissez-faire creates a window of opportunity to improve the flow of structured information or knowledge by making individual access to excludable public benefits conditional on ascertainable efforts to limit claims, as agreed upon in situational contracts. Contracts are situationalwhen agents in delivery are mandated to allow for differences in ability to perform of beneficiaries and to offer customised enabling facilities to improve their capabilities, in line with the vision on fairness of the government in charge. Degrees of freedom and transaction costs are controlled through political guidance in protocols and mandates, on the basis of apply-or-explain. Mutual adjustment in situational response reveals individual preference in direct democracy, improves goal convergence and the fit between supply and demand, reduces opportunism, furthers trust and induces open innovation. The chapter reports on a successful application in The Netherlands.

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