Module 10 · citizens' business

An office in which no official works

You file an application and get an answer in seconds, because the system compares it with rules people voted through earlier. Whatever no rule provides for is settled by the residents of the street, district or city whose common purse the matter comes out of.

Such a community with a purse of its own is called here a circle. A circle is a street, a district, a city, a region, and one day no doubt a continent. Everyone belongs to one, and that belonging is what says where they have a vote.

An application for a building permit

plot Klonowa 12, Zarzecze

A detached house. Set the parameters and send it. The answer comes at once, because there is nothing here to judge: either the application meets the condition or it does not.

Today, and here

Today: you file and you waitregistration, a case number, a queue on somebody's desk, a deadline of up to thirty days, sometimes a request for more information and as long again.up to 30 days
Here: you get an answerthe system compares the application with the rules of that plot and answers at once. Whatever is missing shows when you send it, not a month later.seconds
A refusal says what to correctnot “no basis”, but which rule, by how much, and why that one. You correct it and send it again.specifics
No exceptions in a back officea bad rule is changed by a vote of those who passed it, and then for everyone at once.no exceptions

Other matters at this office

Occupying part of a roadscaffolding, a skip, a delivery by crane9 s
Felling a treespecies, trunk girth, reason, duty to replant6 s
Changing the use of a buildingoutbuilding to dwelling and the other way round12 s
A water and electricity connectionroute, diameter, connected load4 s

They all work the same way: a rule passed earlier, a check at once, and where there is no rule, a vote of those whose common purse the matter comes out of.

Six rules on plot Klonowa 12

each voted through, each signed

Nobody invented them in an office. Each was passed by those whose common purse and common land it concerns: the ridge by one street, the distance from the boundary by the whole cultural region.

A refusal is not the end of the road

Today's office knows one cure for a refusal: a derogation. Somebody signs an approval against the rule, and the rule stays untouched. Whoever signed has power nobody controls.

Here there are no derogations, but there are three roads. You can correct the application. You can question whether that rule concerns your case at all. You can argue that the rule is bad and should read differently.

Propose a change to the rule

Which circle passes what

Streetthe line of the frontage, ridges, fences, roadside greenery206entitled
Districtdimensions, roof pitch, materials, land use4 812entitled
Cityroads, networks, noise, transport88 400entitled
Cultural regionfire safety, structure, water protection1 204 660entitled

When rules from two rungs clash — the street wants one thing, the region another — the higher rung wins. That is an assumption of the mock-up, not a decision of the system — it is written out under “The rules”.

Open a case of your own

An example: you want to open a ceramics workshop in an outbuilding. The plan for this street knows houses and outbuildings, but says nothing about a craft workshop.

The system does not guess and does not invent an exception. It hands the case to Klonowa Street, because it is their land and their common purse: 206 people entitled, 84 households.

A case has no name

The vote is about the thing, not about the personthe question is: “may a workshop without smoke and without lorry deliveries be run on this street”. Not: “do we allow Mr Smith”.
The applicant is under an identifierexactly as in the Judicial Portal. Whoever has fallen out with someone does not know they are voting on that person's case.
A vote cast out of spite hits the voter toothe decision binds everyone in the same situation on this street, including whoever voted against.
This is not a nationwide opinion pollpeople from outside add options and vote without effect. It is settled by those the street belongs to.

With two hundred people, anonymity works. With eight, everyone knows whose plot it is anyway — and that is written out plainly under “The rules” as a gap, not swept away.