How a village joins a taluka without losing its say.
This is the one new idea on this site, and the one that answers the fear every official has about anything with "state" in it: that joining up means the top overrules the bottom. It does not have to.
A group joins a bigger group without giving up its say.
Think of nesting dolls. A village kitty sits inside a taluka kitty, which sits inside a state kitty, and each keeps its own shape. To join, a group only has to say four things: who it is, what it puts in, what it proposes, and what it decided. Three rules, fixed the day the bigger kitty is made:
- Put in. Each group puts a fixed share of its kitty into the bigger one. One fifth, unless they agree otherwise.
- Count heads. A group's vote in the bigger kitty counts for the number of its members, using the votes they already cast. No second vote, and money buys no extra weight.
- Say yes twice. The bigger plan goes ahead only when every group it touches says yes, by its own rule.
Why count heads and not money
A group's vote in the bigger fund counts for the number of its members, not the size of its contribution. Weighting by money would let a rich lane outvote a poor village, which is the opposite of what a shared fund is for. Counting heads is the honest default, and it is written into the rules so that nobody has to argue it each round.
Why nothing above can overrule what is below
A decision in the bigger fund pays out only when every group it touches says yes, by its own rule, at its own threshold. A taluka cannot spend a village's share on something the village voted down. That is slower than a ministry. It is also the reason a village would join.
What is still open
- Can a group belong to two bigger funds in the same round? A lane of shops might sit in a trade federation and a ward. We have not needed an answer yet.
- A person in two groups votes in both. The bigger fund counts groups, not people, so this is allowed by design. We say so rather than hide it.
- The smallest audit. What a stranger needs, from the four exported things alone, to be sure a round was run as written. The checker exists; the written standard does not yet.
The Goa round is one shared fund of several groups. A taluka would be the first fund of funds, and the asks on the front page are sized so that it could be.
Bring one place, one sum, one officer.
If a department, a panchayat, a dzongkhag or a municipal council wants to run a round of its own, with its own sum and its own members, this is built for exactly that.