Giving TDG representatives more knowledge
When politicians are elected into office, they will — and should — bring their life experiences into their new job. Their family and community, their schooling and work, and their formal and informal study of topics outside their immediate lives should come into play while deliberating societal issues.
But when an aspiring politician becomes an elected politician, much of that training kind of stops. Much of a politician’s time is addressing the needs of the political party. Party functions, public meetings, and party planning sessions mean it’s hard to learn more about the world around them. So most politicians are told how to vote on the many bills that go through their legislature — either by the prevailing party ideology or the high-ranking party insiders.Maybe they might acquire some knowledge as the issues face them, but their time for deep study is limited.
And most politicians usually cannot apply their life lessons to the legislation.
If a politician rises higher in the political ranks (in Canada, this would be a cabinet minister), he/she would have more influence. Often, however, the minister usually knows little of the ministry and learns on the job, relying on senior civil servants explaining how the ministry works. Methinks such information is biased, as government workers have a tendency to protect their jobs.
This essay is going to show how TDG representatives use their time, plus giving them a tool to acquire more knowledge while in service to the TDG.
Tiered Democratic Governance
Tiered Democratic Governance (TDG) is my alternative democracy. To briefly describe this new system, the TDG has no political parties, voting is based on good character and capacity for governance, decisions are made consultatively, and the advisory board guides the elected institutions to better decisions. More details are on the TDG website.
With no political parties, TDG representatives are no longer required attend party functions. They have more time for working on solutions for society.
The representatives’ life experiences will be better utilized in the TDG. Those experiences can shape the discussion and the vote.
TDG representatives will face many issues that lie outside their life experience before becoming a representative. So how would TDG representatives become more knowledgeable about these issues?
The Consultancy
While the TDG has an advisory board, this board is mostly focused on the process of TDG governance. So the advisory board and consultancy are two different entities of the TDG. The advisory board is one of the four salient features of the TDG. It must be built. The consultancy is optional. And it might look different that what this essay entails. Each TDG will design itself — and there will likely be other good ways to educate TDG representatives.
The Consultancy is a pool of experts and researchers the TDG representatives can access to get more information on the issues.
Here is how the consultancy could work at a local level. Let’s assume a TDG neighborhood will be undergoing some water line and sewer repairs. The residents will be inconvenienced for a few days. Usually, the municipal authorities have developed some protocols for construction and communication with the residents. They have done this before.
With the TDG, the authorities can bring in the neighborhood representative. The representative can act as an overseer of authorities. If they are in agreement, the residents will be more accepting of the repairs, making the repairs more efficient.
Or the neighborhood representative might have an interesting perspective on the repair. In this case, the representative can bring it to the attention of the authorities — and together they work out a modification to their original plan.
Undoubtedly, most neighborhood representatives have little life experience in making street repairs. But they can use the Consultancy to quickly gain enough knowledge to be credible with the authorities and the neighbors. With that knowledge, cooperation and efficiency are more likely.
The Consultancy is, in essence, a tool to bring more and more accurate information to many decisions in TDG governance.
Registering in the Consultancy
The TDG will set up a process for experts and researchers to register for the Consultancy. There should be a vetting process to ensure the consultants have the abilities they say they have.
Once registered, consultants should be reasonably available for when TDG representatives want to call on them.
The registry should provide a quick biography of each consultant. The TDG representatives will use the registry to select their consultants.
Consultants would set their own fees. Some consultants would charge high fees. Other consultants would start with low fees to build their following, raising their fees later. Some consultants might volunteer their time to the TDG.
Some consultants would consider this part-time work. Others will turn the Consultancy into a full- time occupation. Consultants will manage their own role in the Consultancy.
The Expert Consultants
Expert consultants have recognized capacity. For example, an entomologist specializing in mosquitoes, a heavy-duty mechanic for highway trucks, and an audio technician for hearing tests. Ideally, all professions should be represented by several experts in the consultancy. If a TDG representative needs to learn more about a specific topic, he/she can call in these experts.
It should not be expected that the representative should follow the advice of the expert, although this might happen. Rather the interaction between the representative and the expert should give the representative a better perspective to solve the problem. Remember the representative has the bigger picture of the particular issue than the expert. And the representative has been given the legitimacy to make the decision, in collaboration with other representatives.
The Research Consultants
So the Consultancy should also recruit professional researchers who know how to find reliable information in professional journals, websites, books, and artificial intelligence. The researchers need not be experts in a particular field. They can provide a different perspective than the experts.
For example, the researcher could determine how united the experts are in their knowledge. Maybe a particular profession is speaking mostly with one voice. Or maybe the profession has divergent opinions. The representative might be taking a different path depending on where the expert unity lies.
The TDG Representative
Each TDG representative would have access to the Consultancy.
The representatives would decide when and who to use in the Consultancy. No one else in TDG governance will “force” the representative in his or her choices.
When a representative is faced with a certain TDG issue and determines that more information is needed, the representative can use the Consultancy to find that information.
Of course, the representative should bring whatever reports he/she obtains from the Consultancy to share with neighbors and other representatives. Lots of interesting discussion can be generated with these reports.
Even when the consultants disagree, innovative solutions become more likely as different facts and perspectives become known.
I should add that the TDG representatives can also go outside the Consultancy to find their knowledge. Maybe these consultants will later become part of the Consultancy.
Paying the Consultants
The TDG government would provide an allowance for the representatives to use the Consultancy. This allowance will be higher for the higher tiers.
When a representative uses a consultant’s service, the consultant’s fees are deducted from the representative's allowance. The consultant is paid — and the representative is not bearing the cost.
Is not the media the Consultancy?
Some readers would claim that the media is already doing the reporting this essay is calling for. Not really. The media’s main function is to prepare stories for consumption of the masses. To let the people know what is happening. That is fair. While these reports may help put issues on the public’s agenda, there is usually not enough information to solve the problem.
Let’s take, for example, a street intersection that seems to be having too many accidents. The media may bring attention to the issue, and a representative might become more proactive. The first thing the representative should do is “get the facts,” not rely solely on the media saying the intersection of 22nd Street and 36th Avenue is a problem. The Consultancy may be the best place to determine whether this is an aberration or a trend. Maybe there are other intersections that deserve more attention.
If facts suggest a higher-than-average accident rate, the representative can contact the civil engineer manages road traffic. But before the representative makes contact, he/she can use the Consultancy to get some background information on traffic management, statistics, and possible solutions. With this background, the representative would better understand how an average civil engineer thinks, in laymen’s terms. With that knowledge, the representative and civil engineer will have a more productive conversation.
Is not artificial intelligence the Consultancy?
With AI, any knowledge can supposedly be accessed by anyone. So TDG representatives can access the AIs. No need for any Consultancy allowance, right? The representatives just do their own AI work.
I haven’t used AI that much. But my experience is that it cannot be trusted. It tells lies in subtle ways. And we should not be surprised that monied interests will find ways to give AI’s certain biases, as monied interests are already doing this in mainstream and social media. Unsuspecting users of AIs can be caught up in these biased stories.
So operating an AI will require experienced practitioners who know how to ask the right questions in the right ways and know when the AI is going in a biased direction. The researchers will have a better handle on the nuances of using AIs. By providing the Consultancy, the TDG knows its representatives are getting better information.
And most TDG representatives will be mostly volunteers. We should not burden them with trying to figure out how AIs actually work. Let the Consultancy do this work for them. But if a representative wants to do his/her own AI work, there's nothing wrong with that.
A Consultant’s Reputation
Whenever a consultant is called into the TDG, there will be an informal analysis made by the representative directly calling the consultant and the other representatives using the same report. Some consultants will be regarded more useful than others toward finding solutions. These consultants should be called more frequently.
Conclusion
In today’s democracies, politicians’ life experiences are less important than the needs of the political party.
The life experiences of TDG representatives will be useful in TDG governance.
But life experiences are not enough. The TDG can set up the Consultancy to give TDG representatives better access to reliable, accurate, in-depth knowledge. This knowledge will find better solutions.
Published on Medium 2026
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