Improve the Feedback Model
Government needs to improve the gathering, synthesis, and accountability of feedback from citizens. In commerce, there is a continuous cycle of feedback between buyer and seller that occurs naturally. Products that sell well demonstrate good demand, and products that sell poorly have limited demand. Private institutions also gather feedback on their product and service offerings, as they have a natural incentive to improve and increase sales. This “automatic” feedback model does not currently exist for public services as maximizing sales is inapplicable.
While elections do provide broad public feedback, they often occur far apart— generally every two to six years. Once a “bad seed” is in office, the public does not have an opportunity to provide electoral feedback until the next election unless extraordinary measures are taken (e.g. impeachment). Citizens do have the opportunity to provide more direct feedback to their elected representatives or agencies, however there is no enforcement mechanism to ensure that the feedback is adequately addressed.
Elected representatives should proactively seek feedback. This process could be enacted simply via online surveys incentivized by a tax credit, where citizens are provided an opportunity to provide frequent feedback to their representatives. As this data is collected throughout the course of a representative’s tenure, their responsiveness can be measured and serve as a key metric for subsequent elections. A feedback response rating could be utilized to measure a representative’s effectiveness to enact feedback. A similar process should be established for public services as well.