What is DSI?

Mission

Democratic Systems Inc. (DSI) is a nonprofit organization that improves policy outcomes for the general public through strategic, principled, collaborative action.

Justification

Many Americans believe that electoral politics, grassroots organizing, and social justice work in the public and private sectors are severely limited in their ability to address the roots of systemic inequalities and empower vulnerable communities. These pathways typically promote incremental change and band-aid solutions that fail to target the underlying factors that sustain complex social issues over time. Therefore, conscious change-makers must connect with people and organizations whose efforts seek to target the roots of systemic inequalities and address the systemic needs of citizens nationwide.

Core Goals

To accomplish this mission, DSI aims to:

• Increase Public Consciousness (about)
  • What a democracy is.
  • How elected leaders in a democracy should function.
  • How the efforts of elected leaders impact public policy trends.
• Increase Collective Capacity to Address Structural Inequalities
  • Increase our collective capacity as citizens and civil groups to pursue solutions that effectively address the needs of vulnerable communities nationwide.

What We're Building

To achieve our core goals and advance our strategic vision, DSI is developing and employing the following technical tools:

1. The Performance Tool provides citizens with a simple and centralized location for evaluating annually-released government data detailing the government's performance in addressing different systemic issues over time.

2. The Elected Official Rap Sheet provides citizens with a simple and centralized location for accessing public statements from elected officials regarding their stances on different systemic issues.

3. The Connector creates national resource maps that display the companies, activist organizations, and NGOs working to address different systemic issues on a local level.