Getting Under the Hood of The People’s Political Vehicle

Getting Under the Hood of The People’s Political Vehicle: Designing Democracy with DODO

Three key political science concepts inform our approach: 

1. Constitutional engineering: Popularized by political scientist Giovanni Sartori in Comparative Constitutional Engineering (1994), constitutional engineering is the intentional design or reform of a political unit’s constitution and legal structures.

2. Political engineering: Also involving intentional design and reform, political engineering involves applying political science knowledge to the design or reform of our institutions to achieve specific social, electoral, or governance outcomes. One of the most prominent examples of political engineering is the Founding Fathers of the United States, like James Madison and Thomas Jefferson. They applied the principles of political philosophers before them, such as Montesquieu and John Locke, to engineer the United States’ constitutional system.

3. Constitution building:  This is a long-term and historical process, in which a polity agrees on the need for change, establishes rules for drafting the new rules, writes the new constitution (using concepts from constitutional and political engineering), gives it legal effect through a ratification process, and implements the new constitution (see International IDEA’s Practical Guide to Constitution Building for more information).

To use an auto analogy, constitutional engineering is the deliberate design of the chassis and engine block, while political engineering tunes the transmission, aligns the steering, and calibrates how the vehicle actually performs on the road.  Constitution-building is a larger long-term process of major change, involving consensus that a new model of the vehicle is needed, the application of research and values to develop a new design, manufacturing the new model, and marketing to build excitement and support for it.

I’m using a vehicular analogy here because, in Sartori’s view, constitutions are like “political engines” or machines that drive a country forward. They set up active working mechanisms (institutions and processes) that, if the constitution works properly, generate specific outputs (like representation, the output of elections, and laws, the output of elected representatives). To work properly, constitutions must include incentives and punishments for behaviors that are accepted and followed by the population. 

When political engines don’t work as we think they should, we can use constitutional and political engineering to reform our systems to work better. 

We identify parts that have worn or warped over time and need repair or, in some cases, wholesale replacement with a more modern or better part. Depending on the nature of the problem, we may suggest an array of possible repairs and replacement parts for the citizen to choose from, according to their values and priorities. We carefully explain the likely consequences of those options, including any side effects or risks based on the best data available (high-quality political science research).