Overview:
The Local Economy & Governance System (LEGS) presents a comprehensive framework for restructuring society, economy, and governance to address persistent challenges such as inequality, environmental degradation, and social fragmentation.
LEGS prioritises People, Community, and The Environment as the foundation for all policy decisions.
1. Principles for Policy Design
- People: Policies must protect individual dignity, personal sovereignty, and wellbeing.
- Community: Emphasize collective responsibility, local decision-making, and mutual support.
- The Environment: Ensure stewardship of natural resources and embed sustainability in all sectors.
2. Governance Reform
- Transition from hierarchical, distant leadership to local, democratic, and transparent governance.
- Leadership is earned through service and accountability, not status or authority.
- Decision-making structures (e.g., the Circumpunct model) ensure open, participatory processes.
3. Economic Restructuring
- Implement a local circular economy: value circulates within communities, minimising external dependencies.
- Money is treated strictly as a medium of exchange, not as a source of power or speculation.
- Essential needs (food, housing, healthcare, transport, clothing, communication, social participation) are guaranteed for all through the Basic Living Standard.
4. Public Good & Social Provision
- Redefine public services as Community Provision, locally accountable and ethically grounded.
- Every working member contributes 10% of their working week to public services and charity, replacing traditional public sector staffing with a community-led workforce.
5. Sectoral Policies
- Food: Prioritise local, natural, minimally processed foods; restrict luxury and processed foods.
- Health: Prohibit public smoking/vaping; deliver social care through relational, community-based models.
- Housing: Limit ownership to one dwelling per person; treat housing as a right, not a commodity.
6. Education & Skills
- Focus education on developing key life skills, self-awareness, and personal sovereignty.
- Balance academic, experiential, and social learning to support independence and ethical awareness.
7. Business & Enterprise
- Businesses must serve the public good, not profit. Social Businesses are non-profit, collectively owned, and fill gaps where private enterprise does not meet essential needs.
- Ownership and wealth are distributed equitably among contributors.
8. Technology & AI
- Strictly regulate AI and technology to ensure they serve humanity and do not replace human agency.
- All essential services must have human-led, non-digital alternatives.
9. Freedom, Sovereignty, and Ethics
- Protect personal sovereignty, freedom of thought, and belief.
- Foster morality and ethics through freedom, security, and shared humanity—not through rules or oppression.
10. Decentralisation & Locality
- Structure society around decentralised, self-contained Universal Parishes, ensuring governance, economy, and community life remain local, ethical, and responsive.
Strategic Takeaway for Policymakers:
LEGS offers a blueprint for policy innovation that centres on local empowerment, ethical governance, and universal access to essential needs.
Policymakers are encouraged to adopt and adapt these principles to create resilient, fair, and sustainable communities – where the public good is always the primary objective, and every individual’s dignity and wellbeing are protected.
Adam Tugwell 