Director & Founder @publictrust_ | Helping communities solve problems with more democracy | Baba to two little ones | Prev: @Goodeggs @Opendoor
Joined December 2006
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Here are 3 key innovations Citizens’ Assemblies & Deliberative Democracy hold for 21st-century democracies -- critical tools for our time:
A honor to have contributed to this work.
From the ashes of adversity rises the phoenix of change.✨
Engaged California III is a conversation of co-creation & ⿻Plurality about the impact of AI on work.🛠️
It builds dialogue & strengthens people-government trust.🤝
Yes! The #TaiwanModel🇹🇼 & #CivicAI Can Help.
#LLAP🖖
ALT A graphic featuring a navy-blue silhouette of California overlaid with three overlapping circles containing icons for a briefcase, laptop and microphone promotes the third pilot for Engaged California. The headline states that AI policy should be shaped by people and the subheads state that AI is changing how we do work in California. What do you want the State of California to know about how AI is affecting you? Audrey Tang, Taiwan’s cyber ambassador, first digital minister, architect of the Taiwan Model for digital diplomacy and 2025 Right Livelihood laureate, is a partner in advancing Engaged California and California’s digital democracy effort. https://www.gov.ca.gov/2026/05/07/governor-newsom-launches-engaged-california-statewide-for-the-first-time-to-give-all-californians-a-stronger-voice-in-ai-policy/
Rahmin Sarabi 🌱🗽 retweeted
From the ashes of adversity rises the phoenix of change.✨
Engaged California III is a conversation of co-creation & ⿻Plurality about the impact of AI on work.🛠️
It builds dialogue & strengthens people-government trust.🤝
Yes! The #TaiwanModel🇹🇼 & #CivicAI Can Help.
#LLAP🖖
ALT A graphic featuring a navy-blue silhouette of California overlaid with three overlapping circles containing icons for a briefcase, laptop and microphone promotes the third pilot for Engaged California. The headline states that AI policy should be shaped by people and the subheads state that AI is changing how we do work in California. What do you want the State of California to know about how AI is affecting you? Audrey Tang, Taiwan’s cyber ambassador, first digital minister, architect of the Taiwan Model for digital diplomacy and 2025 Right Livelihood laureate, is a partner in advancing Engaged California and California’s digital democracy effort. https://www.gov.ca.gov/2026/05/07/governor-newsom-launches-engaged-california-statewide-for-the-first-time-to-give-all-californians-a-stronger-voice-in-ai-policy/
All Californians are invited to join Engaged California, a statewide effort to give residents a stronger voice in shaping AI policy and its impact on our economy and workers — because everyone deserves a seat at the table.
Sign up ➡️ Engaged.CA.Gov/AI
Excellent summary of 20th century Iran as it relates to this moment.
For centuries, monarchs ruled Persia.
Then in 1921, a military officer named Reza Khan seized power with British cash.
By 1925, he crowned himself King: Reza Shah Pahlavi.
The Pahlavis ruled the country.
But the British ruled Iranian oil.
By 1950, Iran was pumping 660,000 barrels a day (7% of global supply). Almost all the revenue went to London. Iran got pennies.
Enter "Mossy."
After the Shah abdicated during WW2 (UK and Soviets took over), a democratic window opened.
In 1951, the Iranian parliament elected Mohammad ("Mossy") Mosaddegh.
Mossy was a character. He ran the state from his bedroom, wearing pajamas. He was so fascinating that Time Magazine named him "Man of the Year" in 1951 (beating Churchill and Eisenhower).
But then he committed an unforgivable sin: He nationalized the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC) to take back control of Iranian oil revenue from the British.
He became a Western pariah overnight.
The CIA was on a post-WW2 roll installing new governments here and there.
To help out the British, in 1953 the CIA launched Operation Ajax, led by Kermit Roosevelt (Teddy's grandson), to overthrow Mossy.
Toppling the new Iranian democracy turned out to be surprisingly easy.
The CIA reinstated the Shah.
The oil company AIOC whose main revenue was Iranian oil was rebranded as British Petroleum (BP).
For the next 25 years, a consortium (40% BP, 40% US oil majors - a little kicker for the CIA Shah reinstallation) once again drained Iranian oil revenues.
The Shah was a puppet. He used his secret police (SAVAK) to keep the strings attached.
Iranians wanted change.
Unfortunately Mossy was long gone.
So a 1979 revolution ousted the Shah, only for an even more extremist ayatollah to fill the Shah-shaped power vacuum.
Today, in 2026, Iranians know that the ayatollah is just the Shah with a different hat.
They know that this time Iran doesn't need another Shah.
It needs another Mossy.
Rahmin Sarabi 🌱🗽 retweeted
So with @AnthropicAI enabling “search” in Claude, and @OpenAI already offering this capability — is “search” now just a feature of a bigger shift in how we interact with information?
Rahmin Sarabi 🌱🗽 retweeted
Good Enough Ancestor is out now!! Learn the story of Audrey Tang as she reflects on democracy in Taiwan and around the globe. Watch the full short documentary at RxC's Combinations Mag: combinationsmag.com/good-eno… @audreyt @CombinationsMag
An amazing dinner featuring the brilliant work of @stephlepp this Sunday in SF, hosted by @RamanFrey.
Stephanie will screen Faces of X — a new media series that integrates divided perspectives.
Mind, body, and possibly soul will be nourished!
eventbrite.com/e/gp-dinner-1…
I'm a proud supporter of John Jersin for SF School Board. 🎉
John is a sincere, practical, humble leader that truly will give his best to our kids and schools. Please consider getting to know him and his campaign.
Here's to SF's best days ahead ✨
I'm running for SF Board of Education! john4schoolboard.com/about-j…
SF schools face a teacher shortage & massive fiscal crisis. Last weekend, hundreds of parents, teachers, and elected leaders gathered with @jaimenina, @ParagGuptaSF and me for our announcement. Let's go!!
Rahmin Sarabi 🌱🗽 retweeted
Here are 3 key innovations Citizens’ Assemblies & Deliberative Democracy hold for 21st-century democracies -- critical tools for our time:
Rahmin Sarabi 🌱🗽 retweeted
"The history of spirituality tells us we must learn to accept paradoxes, or we will never love anything or see it correctly... The modern phenomenon of fundamentalism displays an almost complete incapacity to deal with paradox, & shows how much we’ve regressed."
—Richard Rohr
“[too often electeds are] held captive by the screamers and the zealots and the extremes… [citizens' assemblies] are a way to get sensible answers from a broad selection of the real people…" - a civic leader on a call the other day
If you're looking for a thoughtful introduction, there's a great Deliberative Democracy Processes "Policy Kit" just out from @DemocracyPolicy.
democracypolicy.network/agen…
Rahmin Sarabi 🌱🗽 retweeted
And thank you to our many speakers and workshop participants! @lessig @FIDEurope @rahmin @publictrust_ @extituto @IdeemosL @TRIBUong
@FutureArmenian @Roger_Berkowitz
@jonmoskovic @DimitriCourant @clmellier @mschmitt9 @lizbarry @compdem
Appreciating a subtle calm and slowing down in the air… the slightly cool exhale of the Fall breeze as the heat of the Summer sun still shines bright.
Looking forward to listening to this one:
Happy Friday! Have you heard @divyasiddarth’s talk with @tristanharris on Your Undivided Attention? They explore how tech can transform governance from elections to climate change. Let’s reimagine decision-making! #DemocracyUpgrade #CollectiveIntelligence podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas…
Fires of this magnitude in Canada in the beginning of June… I’m somehow just doing the math of how daunting that makes the rest of the fire season feel.
This will sound counterintuitive given the polarization and division of our time...
We need to move from a majoritarian to a super majoritarian democracy.
We can find common ground (70%+ agreement) on even our trickiest issues. In many cases the public is already there and it's ignored. In others, we need to upgrade our Democracy OS so we can discover that transformational common ground.
The good news: this is more than theory. We've seen this in practice in citizens' assemblies, deliberative democracy, and collective intelligence initiatives around the world.
Rahmin Sarabi 🌱🗽 retweeted
What is systems mapping, why is it so important for developing a shared understanding of complex challenges & how do we go about making a map? This video course explains bit.ly/SystemsMappingCourse
An honor to close out @robreich @MarietjeSchaake and @McFaul's course @Stanford on Defending Democracy. 🗽
I shared about the 600+ citizens' assembly cases around the world, their breakthroughs, and how they can strengthen and deepen democracy in the US and abroad. This is our work at @DemocracyNext. 📢
A better 'lower case d' democratic future is possible. We've got to upgrade our democracy operating system so we can create better results, foster meaningful unity, and give citizens real agency in shaping their futures. ✨
The evidence is clear citizens' assemblies are part of the answer. Let's bring them to life and embed them much more in democracies around the world, alongside innovations in collaborative sense-making like @cccatmit @cortico and @UsePolis.
