Introduction to People-Centered Policymaking
Many Californians are struggling to find affordable housing, quality childcare, and healthy food that won’t break the bank. To truly tackle these issues, we have to rethink not just our strategies, but who is involved in creating solutions and who benefits from them.
explore the entire seriesResources
Too many Californians are struggling: in a recent survey we conducted at UC Berkeley’s Possibility Lab, 71% of voters say it’s difficult to find housing within their price range, while nearly half struggle to find good local jobs (45%), low-cost healthy food (47%), or affordable eldercare (59%).
Despite the tremendous resources available, and California’s standing as the fourth largest economy in the world, our state has a scarcity problem. Whether we’re talking about housing, well-paying jobs, childcare or eldercare, it feels to many like there just isn’t enough to go around.
One potential solution generating considerable buzz is the Abundance Agenda, with the core belief that if we can just increase the overall supply of everything – housing, clean energy, education – then everyone is automatically going to be better off. And not just building more, but building faster by removing the bureaucratic barriers and red tape that slow projects down. It’s a “rising tide lifts all boats” approach.
Abundance cannot only be about producing more; it must be about producing better, together.
While this emphasis on speed and efficiency sounds appealing, our research suggests that implementation reveals a crucial blindspot. The real challenge isn't whether to build more—it's ensuring that the increased supply of essential goods and services actually improves life for the maximum number of Californians. To achieve these goals, we need a new model of people-centered policymaking.
One potential solution generating considerable buzz is the Abundance Agenda, with the core belief that if we can just increase the overall supply of everything – housing, clean energy, education – then everyone is automatically going to be better off. And not just building more, but building faster by removing the bureaucratic barriers and red tape that slow projects down. It’s a “rising tide lifts all boats” approach.
One potential solution generating considerable buzz is the Abundance Agenda, with the core belief that if we can just increase the overall supply of everything – housing, clean energy, education – then everyone is automatically going to be better off. And not just building more, but building faster by removing the bureaucratic barriers and red tape that slow projects down. It’s a “rising tide lifts all boats” approach.
Abundance cannot only be about producing more; it must be about producing better, together.
While this emphasis on speed and efficiency sounds appealing, our research suggests that implementation reveals a crucial blindspot. The real challenge isn’t whether to build more—it’s ensuring that the increased supply of essential goods and services actually improves life for the maximum number of Californians. To achieve these goals, we need a new model of people-centered policymaking.
VIDEO EXPLAINER
Read the Report: People-Centered Abundance FrameworkThrough this research series, we’ll explore the critical yet missing component in this vision of abundance: the people who will make it possible.
Working with communities to design solutions that work for them, in the places they live.
Working with labor, including streamlining opportunities and creating incentives for essential job training
Working with labor, including streamlining opportunities and creating incentives for essential job training
And working with the people in government who will help deliver goods and services that benefit us all.
While Californians urgently need a future with access to the essentials for a quality life, we cannot ignore the questions of who builds this future and who benefits from it. Sustainable abundance requires not only removing barriers to building, but actively creating pathways for communities to participate in, and benefit from, that growth.
We believe building fast can be coupled with building fair, and our research explores how to make this possible.
In this research series, we’ll describe data that explores the tradeoffs inherent in balancing ‘building fast’ with ‘building fair’ across the care economy, labor and workforce, and the built infrastructure. We’ll offer new research on how communities can provide input while keeping processes moving forward, and shifting influence away from special interests towards the social good. We’ll consider the types of partnerships, policies, and perspectives that can advance these goals. And, finally, we’ll offer a starting point for evidence-based and community-informed policy reforms that enable us to ‘build more’ in ways that allow all Californians to share in the state’s abundant resources.
The stakes are high. Housing costs continue to outpace wages across the state, and one in five Californians can’t afford to put food on their table.
Without intentional action, new policies could simply reproduce existing inequalities at a larger scale. But done well, California’s push for reforms could become a model for how we can meet people’s basic needs while expanding opportunity for everyone.
The path forward requires acknowledging that true abundance isn’t just about quantity; it’s about creating systems that work for all Californians: across rural and urban communities, across economic sectors, across private and public entities. Only then will the rising tide truly lift all boats.
explore the entire seriesRelated Projects
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Understanding equity in criminal record clearance
Strengthening training for law enforcement supervisors
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