Welcome

PRAXIS: Build the Lifeboat

PRAXIS is a practice for building parallel democratic infrastructure. Select a section from the sidebar to begin reading the manifesto, or explore the prompts below to start building in your community.

Navigate the document. Use the sidebar to explore each section of the manifesto. Each section contains analysis, historical context, and actionable prompts you can use to build democratic infrastructure in your city.
Recent Prompts
: YEAR 1 BUDGET

Build your actual Year 1 budget: local cost estimates, funding sources mapped to line items, and the cash flow timeline showing when money is needed vs. when it arrives.
Three sections. (1) Expense table: line item, monthly cost, annual cost, source (grant/contribution/in-kind/volunteer). (2) Revenue table: source, amount, status (confirmed/applied/planned), expected date. (3) Cash flow timeline: month-by-month, showing cumulative expenses vs. cumulative revenue. Id
: STAFFING

Complete your staffing plan: name, role, hours/week committed, start date, and first-month deliverable for every position.
Table: Role (from the table above), Person (real name or "OPEN"), Hours/week, Start date, First deliverable (due within 30 days), Backup (who covers if they're unavailable). For every "OPEN" role, add a recruitment row: where you'll find this person, what you'll offer, outreach deadline. No role sta
: RESEARCH AGENDA

Write your Research working group's first-year research agenda: questions, methods, data sources, publication targets, and IRB requirements.
Table: Research question, Method (survey/case study/participatory action research), Data source, Timeline (start to submission), Target publication or outlet, IRB status (needed/submitted/approved/exempt). Minimum three studies: one on participation outcomes, one on governance quality, one on econom
: OUTREACH PIPELINE

Build your Coalition working group's outreach pipeline: targets ranked by priority, the named contact person, the specific ask, and the follow-up schedule.
CRM-style table. Organization, Contact name, Contact method (email/intro/event), Priority (1-3), The Ask (one sentence), Status (not contacted/contacted/meeting scheduled/agreement drafted/signed), Follow-up date. Load it with your first 20 targets. Review weekly. Move every Priority 1 to "contacted
: EDITORIAL CHARTER

Write your Communications working group's editorial charter: voice, approval process, publishing authority, and correction policy.
Five sections. Voice: three adjectives, one paragraph defining tone (with examples of what you sound like and what you never sound like). Approval: who can publish without review, what requires editorial sign-off, turnaround time. Authority: who speaks for the network vs. who speaks for their node.
: ASSEMBLY PLAYBOOK OUTLINE

Write the table of contents for your Assembly Playbook: every chapter, its purpose, and the template or SOP it contains.
Minimum chapters: (1) Assembly setup (venue, tools, roles). (2) Facilitation guide (agenda template, speaking protocols, time management). (3) Proposal process (submission format, deliberation structure, voting method, implementation tracking). (4) Conflict resolution (the five-stage process from yo
: TECHNICAL ROADMAP

Write your Platform working group's 6-month roadmap: deliverables, milestones, dependencies, and the first pull request.
Month-by-month table. Deliverable, owner, depends on, definition of done. Month 1: tool audit and deployment plan. Month 2: communication infrastructure live. Month 3: governance tools configured. Month 4: Civic Engine alpha. Month 5: data dashboards. Month 6: integration testing and documentation.
: SUSTAINABILITY MODEL

Write your network's financial sustainability model: revenue sources, cost structure, break-even point, and the governance process for budget decisions.
Three sections. Revenue: member node contributions (formula: per-capita, flat, sliding scale), grant portfolio (target: no single grant > 30% of budget), earned income (training, consulting, event fees). Costs: infrastructure hosting, staff (if any), travel, legal. Break-even: at how many nodes and
: SCALE METRICS DASHBOARD

Design your network's metrics dashboard: the five numbers that tell you whether you're winning, where they come from, and who reviews them.
Five metrics. For each: metric name, data source, collection method, update frequency, target value, current value, owner. Example: "Active participants per city / Civic Engine database / automated weekly / target: 500 in lead city / reviewed by: Governance working group." The dashboard should be pu
: FEDERATION LAUNCH

Draft the federation launch plan: second city selection criteria, handoff process, shared infrastructure requirements, and the first cross-city action.
Four sections. City selection: criteria (existing organizer, population, political conditions, technical capacity), evaluation rubric, decision-maker. Handoff: what the founding city provides (playbook, tool configs, training hours, ongoing support commitment). Shared infrastructure: what runs centr
: FUNDRAISING TOOLKIT

Write a practical fundraising guide for your assembly: grant research, application templates, crowdfunding strategy, and donor relationship management.
Four tracks. (1) Grants: how to find them (Foundation Directory Online, Candid, local community foundations), application template (problem statement, theory of change, budget, evaluation plan), submission calendar. (2) Crowdfunding: platform selection (GoFundMe, Open Collective, Liberapay), campaig
: RISK REGISTER

Build your assembly's risk register: identify the top ten threats to your project, rate their likelihood and impact, and assign a mitigation owner for each.
Table with seven columns. Risk description. Category (legal, financial, operational, reputational, safety). Likelihood (1-5). Impact (1-5). Risk score (L x I). Mitigation strategy (one sentence). Owner (name). Include at minimum: funding shortfall, key person departure, legal challenge, platform dep
All Sections
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01 — Strategic Vision
Not through insurrection. Not through electoral capture. Through the patient construction of functional democratic infrastructure that demonstrably outperforms existing institutions, until the question is no longer whether to change the system, but why the old one is still running at all.
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02 — Metaphysical Infrastructure
Before the tools, before the assemblies, before the federation, there is a question that every political project must answer and that most refuse to ask: what kind of people are we trying to become? PRAXIS is not values-neutral infrastructure. The ethics are load-bearing. They are not decorative lan
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03 — Theoretical Foundations
PRAXIS is not a novel political theory. It is the practical implementation of ideas that have been tested (in assemblies, in autonomous territories, in revolutionary experiments) across centuries and continents. The methodology directly encodes the structural lessons of these movements: what worked,
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04 — Functional Architecture
PRAXIS is organized around seven functional needs that any community practicing democratic self-governance will encounter. Each function is filled by existing open-source tools, not custom software. What is shared across the network is the practice, not the product. No single tool is a dependency.