Our first two policy kits: Public Banks + Democracy Vouchers

Transformative state policy for democratizing capital and campaign finance

We at the Democracy Policy Network (DPN) are working to take bold state-level policy ideas mainstream by packaging them into organized, accessible, and useful policy kits for state legislators. We are pleased to announce the launch of DPN’s first two policy kits — on public banks and democracy vouchers.

Our public banks policy kit, organized by Michael Brennan and Macabe Keliher, is about how states can establish public banks to democratize capital, build resiliency, and better leverage state funds for public purposes. It shares the various elements required to charter and design local and state public banks, as a well as case studies of the Bank of North Dakota (the nation’s only state public bank) and recent efforts in California, New Jersey, and New York to charter public banks. View the kit here and read Michael’s announcement of the kit here.

Our democracy vouchers policy kit, organized by Tom Latkowski, is about how states can establish a "democracy voucher" campaign finance system — in which residents are issued vouchers to 'donate' to candidates of their choice — to fight corruption and increase participation in the electoral process. It shares details about how to design a democracy voucher system, leverage a voucher system to get candidates to opt-in to more campaign finance rules, and mitigate the impact of political action committees. It also has an in-depth case study of the Seattle Democracy Voucher system that inspired the kit. View the kit here and read Tom’s announcement of the kit here.

Stay tuned for more in the coming months. We are going to be deepening these kits, adding more modules, from model legislation to polling to talking points. We also have a couple dozen kits in the works, from prison voting to community land trusts to civil legal aid for all.

For now, please reach out if you are interested in learning more and/or helping DPN gather, package, organize, and amplify policies like these. And if you know of a state policy that has been specifically promising, get in touch (Pete@DemocracyPolicy.network). DPN is a network, not a think tank — our model is based on your knowledge and participation, so please reach out if you have ideas to share.