What question did this study set out to answer?

The aim is to align political actions with the welfare benefits for voters through data-driven recommendations.

February 6, 2026Open Access

Optimocracy: Evidence-Based Governance Through Outcome-Bound Optimization

Key Points

The aim is to align political actions with the welfare benefits for voters through data-driven recommendations.
Analyze historical policy data across different jurisdictions
Calculate policies predicting above-average median income and healthy life years
Publish voting recommendations based on data confirmations
Track the alignment of politicians' actions with evidence-based funding
Utilize SuperPAC funding to support evidence-informed decisions
Estimates suggest a 20% potential welfare gain from realignment of political actions
Demonstrates how current governance has structural flaws that can be addressed through optimization
Shows that consolidating decision points into one verification layer reduces corruption risks effectively.

Abstract

Politicians allocate trillions annually. What gets you reelected is often not what benefits voters. This misalignment costs an estimated 20% (95% CI: 9%-39.3%) of potential welfare. Optimocracy: (1) Analyze historical data on policies across jurisdictions, (2) Calculate which predict above-average median income and healthy life years, (3) Publish recommendations for every vote, (4) Track politician alignment, (5) Fund accordingly via SuperPAC. Politicians vote however they want. Following evidence gets funded; ignoring it doesn't. The structural advantage: current governance has thousands of capture points (committees, agencies, regulations). Optimocracy consolidates these to a single, harder target: the verification layer. Corrupting five independent data sources requires coordination that corrupting individual committee decisions does not.

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