DirectDemocracyS

POLITICAL, ECONOMIC, FINANCIAL AND SOCIAL PROGRAM

COSTA RICA

2026 – 2034

Authentic, complete, continuous, direct, rapid, competent, immediate, secure and protected democracy — Forever, of the People only

Based on logic, common sense, study, reality, truth, coherence, and mutual respect

ddsAI technologies · allddsAI · AI democracy · Manipulation-free platforms

directdemocracys.org

GENERAL INDEX

1. Declaration of Principles and Presentation of DirectDemocracyS

2. Diagnosis of the Costa Rican Reality — Critical Analysis

2.1 Political and Institutional Crisis

2.2 Economic and Fiscal Crisis

2.3 Social Crisis, Inequality and Poverty

2.4 Citizen Security Crisis and Drug Trafficking

2.5 Educational Crisis

2.6 Environmental and Infrastructure Crisis

2.7 Lessons from the 2026 Elections

3. The DirectDemocracyS Proposal — The New Paradigm

3.1 Fundamentals of the DDS System

3.2 Digital Direct Democracy — ddsAI and allddsAI

3.3 Micro-Groups, Fractality and Real Representation

3.4 Non-Transferable Collective Ownership

4. Political and Institutional Program

5. Economic and Financial Program

6. Social and Welfare Program

7. Citizen Security Program

8. Educational and Research Program

9. Environmental, Energy and Infrastructure Program

10. National Wealth Belongs to the People — Inalienable Principle

11. Implementation, Timeline and Anticipated Consequences

12. Conclusions — The Future Costa Rica Deserves

 

1. DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES AND PRESENTATION OF DIRECTDEMOCRACYS

DirectDemocracyS (DDS) is a global political organization founded on principles that no traditional party has been able or willing to apply: irrefutable logic, verifiable common sense, the ongoing study of reality, proven truth, absolute consistency between discourse and action, and mutual respect among all members, regardless of their origin, position, or status. DDS operates in every country in the world with the same set of values, adapting its program to local realities without ever betraying its founding principles.

In Costa Rica, DDS arrives at a historic moment: the country has just elected Laura Fernández as its new president on February 1, 2026, with 48.5% of the vote, continuing the political line inaugurated by Rodrigo Chaves. This victory expresses a citizen demand for real change. However, DDS maintains that no change within the conventional system of representative democracy—however well-intentioned—can solve the country's structural problems, because those problems are a direct consequence of the system itself, not of its actors.

DDS CENTRAL DIAGNOSIS: The fundamental problem in Costa Rica is not who governs. It is the system that decides HOW the country is governed. As long as decision-making power remains in the hands of political and economic elites, and not in the hands of the Costa Rican people as a whole, no problem will be solved fairly, permanently, and completely.

1.1 Our Core Values

• Logic: Every decision must be able to be rationally justified to any citizen.
• Common sense: Solutions must be applicable, verifiable, and understandable to everyone.
• Ongoing study: No proposal without rigorous analysis, real data, and international comparison.
• Truth: Never hide problems, never promise the impossible, never deceive the citizens.
• Consistency: What DDS proposes during the campaign, DDS implements once in power. No exceptions.
• Mutual respect: All Costa Ricans are equal in rights, dignity, and ability to contribute.

1.2 Our Position on Conventional Solutions

DDS does not offer empty promises or short-term solutions that address symptoms but perpetuate underlying problems. DDS offers systemic change. We understand that this change frightens those who benefit from the current system. We also understand that many citizens distrust any profound change, having been betrayed so many times before. Therefore, the implementation of DDS is gradual, transparent, verifiable at every stage, and reversible if the citizens so decide democratically.

 

2. DIAGNOSIS OF THE COSTA RICAN REALITY — CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Before proposing solutions, DDS conducts an honest diagnosis based on real data. The critique that follows is not ideologically or partisanly motivated: it is the result of an objective analysis of public information, academic studies, reports from international organizations, and the direct experience of Costa Rican citizens.

2.1 Political and Institutional Crisis

Costa Rica boasts an exceptional democratic tradition in Latin America: clean elections, peaceful transfers of power, and a Supreme Electoral Tribunal recognized as a model institution in the region. However, this formal strength masks deep fractures.

CRITICAL FACT: Abstention reached 40.9% in 2022, the highest historical record since the democratic transition of 1948. Although there were improvements in 2026, the phenomenon reveals a structural crisis of representation: almost half of the population does not feel represented by any electoral option.

The Costa Rican political system has suffered a progressive delegitimization due to several simultaneous and cumulative causes:

• Extreme fragmentation: In the 2026 elections, 20 presidential candidates competed, none of whom represented a coherent and comprehensive vision for the country. This fragmentation does not reflect genuine ideological diversity but rather the system's inability to generate real programmatic consensus.
• Opaque political financing: Inequity in the political-electoral financing system structurally benefits the most established parties, reproducing the power of the same elites in each electoral cycle.
• Systemic corruption: Corruption scandals are not isolated incidents but symptoms of a system where control mechanisms are insufficient, delayed, and selective in their application.
• Dysfunctional Legislative Assembly: The obtaining of an absolute majority by the Sovereign People Party in 2026 (31 seats) can be interpreted as a search for legislative efficiency, but also as a dangerous concentration of power in the absence of real checks and balances.
• Widespread distrust: Systematic surveys show that the majority of Costa Ricans distrust political parties, the Legislative Branch, and the Executive Branch.

DDS Critique of the Current Electoral System

The system of proportional representation with closed lists is the most effective mechanism known for ensuring that parties—not citizens—control politics. Voters choose a list, not a person; a brand, not a verifiable program; and they vote every four years, not continuously. This system was designed, consciously or not, to minimize real citizen participation in the decisions that affect their lives.

2.2 Economic and Fiscal Crisis

The official narrative presents Costa Rica as a success story: high income by 2025, OECD membership since 2021, and sustained growth driven by exports of advanced manufacturing and high value-added services. This narrative is partially true. Partially true means: mostly misleading.

INDICATOR	OFFICIAL DATA 2025	CRITICAL REALITY
GDP per capita	High-income economy	Concentrated in free trade zones and elite
Poverty	15.2% of households (Enaho 2025)	Slow reduction; 30% of young people in poverty
GINI inequality	48.8 (recent period)	Top 20 most unequal countries in the world
Youth unemployment	30.6% youth unemployment	The tallest in all of Latin America
Public debt	~61% of GDP	Growing; debt service consumes budget
Fiscal deficit	3.4% of GDP (2025)	Reduction due to spending cuts, not revenue reduction
52% of the country's income	In the hands of the richest 20%	Consequence of the regressive tax reform of 2018

The Costa Rican economic model presents a deeply problematic structural duality: an ultra-dynamic export sector (free trade zones, technology, advanced services) that generates concentrated wealth, and a slow-growing, traditional domestic economy that creates precarious employment and excludes large segments of the population. This duality is not a market accident but the result of deliberate political decisions that prioritize foreign investment over endogenous development.

The Debt Trap

Costa Rica's public debt has grown steadily for decades. Servicing this debt (interest and principal payments) consumes an increasing portion of the national budget, leaving fewer resources for health, education, infrastructure, and social programs. DDS denounces this mechanism as the most sophisticated form of subordinating popular sovereignty to private financial interests, both national and international.

FISCAL IMPACT: The 2018 tax reform was regressive: it disproportionately benefited the highest income brackets and harmed the middle and lower classes. Its consequences are still felt today: 52% of the country's income is concentrated in the hands of the wealthiest 20%. No subsequent government has taken effective measures to reverse this situation.

2.3 Social Crisis, Inequality and Poverty

Costa Rica's international image as a country of well-being, nature, and democracy coexists with a social reality that contradicts that narrative in fundamental aspects.

• The GINI coefficient of 48.8 places Costa Rica among the 20 most unequal countries in the world, alongside nations that do not have its level of institutional development or its natural resources.
• In the 1980s, Costa Rica's Gini coefficient was 0.34—among the lowest in the Americas. Inequality has skyrocketed precisely during the period of greatest integration into the globalized economic model.
• Child and youth poverty is the most dramatic: the 30.6% youth unemployment rate and the 26.8% poverty rate among young people represent a generation sacrificed to the system.
• The public health system (CCSS) — one of Costa Rica's most outstanding achievements — is under increasing pressure from underfunding, evasion of social charges by companies, and inefficient management.
• Informal employment affects almost half of the workforce, depriving these workers of social security, decent pensions, and labor protection.
• The territorial gap is profound: rural and peripheral areas, especially the provinces of Guanacaste, Limón, Puntarenas and Coto Brus, register poverty indicators that are double or triple the national averages.

DDS Critique of Conventional Social Programs

Costa Rican social programs (IMAS, FODESAF, housing vouchers, conditional cash transfers) are necessary but insufficient and inefficient palliatives. They are necessary because they alleviate real emergency situations. They are insufficient because they do not address the structural causes of poverty. They are inefficient because a large portion of the resources are lost to bureaucracy, political patronage, and duplication of functions among multiple institutions with overlapping mandates.

2.4 Citizen Security Crisis and Drug Trafficking

Public safety has gone from being a minor concern to becoming the top priority for Costa Ricans. This change is recent, rapid, and deeply unsettling for the national identity of a country that prided itself on its peace.

COST OF CRIME: The economic cost of crime for Costa Rica is estimated at between 2.61% and 3.45% of annual GDP—resources that are irretrievably lost for the country's development. The human and social costs are incalculable.

• The homicide rate has climbed dramatically: from 12.6 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2022 (already a historical record) to even higher levels in subsequent years.
• International drug trafficking has turned Costa Rica into a transit corridor and a consumer market, infiltrating communities, institutions, and formal economic systems.
• Arms trafficking illegally introduces war rifles (AK-47, AR-15, M-16) by taking advantage of porous borders, arming criminal organizations capable of confronting law enforcement.
• Extortion and protection rackets affect businesses, transportation, and small companies, especially in marginalized urban areas, creating a criminal tax parallel to the state.
• The official response has prioritized a punitive approach (more prisons, states of emergency) over a preventive and comprehensive one. The result: more people incarcerated, more recidivism, more prison spending, and the same level of violence.

DDS Critique of Traditional Security Policies

A heavy-handed approach won't solve the drug trade because drug trafficking is, above all, an economic problem. As long as there are young people without jobs, without hope, and without legitimate access to prosperity, there will always be recruitment into criminal organizations. Real security is a consequence of real well-being. There is no police solution to a problem that has social, economic, and institutional causes.

2.5 Educational Crisis

Costa Rica invests one of the highest proportions of its GDP in education in all of Latin America (historically between 6% and 8% of GDP, as established by the constitution). However, the results are consistently disappointing in terms of quality, equity, and relevance.

• The international PISA tests show mediocre results in reading comprehension, mathematics and science, especially in low socioeconomic contexts.
• Preschool education coverage (EBDI) reaches only 40% of families living in poverty, depriving the most vulnerable children of the most critical period for cognitive development.
• Technical secondary education is insufficient and disconnected from the real labor market, leaving thousands of young people without employable skills upon completing their studies.
• The digital divide in rural areas prevents online education from being an equitable alternative for all students.
• The COVID-19 pandemic deepened existing educational inequalities, with consequences that will affect at least an entire generation.

2.6 Environmental and Infrastructure Crisis

Costa Rica possesses one of the most extraordinary natural heritages on the planet: 5% of the world's biodiversity in just 0.03% of the global territory. It generates more than 99% of its electricity from renewable sources. This exceptional environmental achievement contrasts sharply with serious problems in other areas:

• The road network is one of the main obstacles to competitiveness and equitable development across the country. Deteriorating roads, perpetually delayed infrastructure projects, and slow administrative processes characterize public management in this sector.
• Solid waste management is deficient in large areas of the country, with saturated landfills and little culture of recycling and circular economy.
• The pollution of rivers and coasts by untreated wastewater affects both communities and tourism, a key economic sector for national development.
• Climate change directly impacts agriculture, tourism, and water resources, with increasing consequences for the most vulnerable communities.

2.7 Lessons from the 2026 Elections

The elections of February 1, 2026 offer important lessons that DDS analyzes without partisan motivation:

• Laura Fernández's victory with 48.5% of the vote in the first round reflects a public desire for the continuation of the change initiated by Rodrigo Chaves. The people wanted to maintain the course of breaking with traditional politics.
• The achievement of an absolute majority in the Legislative Assembly by Pueblo Soberano (31 out of 57 seats) is unprecedented since 1990. This concentrates power in an alarming way if there are no effective citizen checks and balances — which do not exist in the current system.
• The 32.12% for the PLN reveals that the traditional two-party system still maintains significant electoral capacity, although in structural decline.
• The presence of 20 presidential candidates and the difficulty for smaller parties to access public funding demonstrate the barriers to entry that protect the established system from real political competition.

DDS OPPORTUNITY: DDS observes that the new president, Fernández, has promised to 'return the institutions to the sovereign people.' This promise is exactly what DDS proposes—but DDS does so with a concrete, technological, participatory, and binding mechanism. Not as electoral rhetoric, but as a verifiable institutional architecture.

 

3. THE DIRECTDEMOCRACYS PROPOSAL — THE NEW PARADIGM

DirectDemocracyS is not just another political party. It is a complete political system, designed from the ground up to solve problems that conventional systems are structurally incapable of addressing. In this section, we present the fundamental elements of the DDS system as applied to Costa Rica.

3.1 Fundamentals of the DDS System

The DDS system rests on five mutually reinforcing pillars that, together, create the conditions for a genuine, not formal, democracy:

PILLAR	DESCRIPTION AND APPLICATION IN COSTA RICA
Real Direct Democracy	Citizens don't delegate power every four years—they exercise it continuously, in real time, over every relevant decision that affects them. Decisions are made collectively, with complete, neutral, and independent information.
Non-Transferable Collective Ownership	The nation's resources (water, biodiversity, subsoil, radio spectrum, coastlines) belong permanently and inalienably to the Costa Rican people. No foreign government, company, or power can appropriate them.
Management by Selected Specialists	Technical decisions are made by groups of verified specialists, democratically elected by citizens within their respective fields of expertise. This puts an end to political improvisation in areas requiring expert knowledge.
Technology at the Service of the Citizen	The ddsAI and allddsAI platforms provide complete, accurate, neutral, and independent information to all citizens and groups, eliminating the power of concentrated mass media to manipulate public opinion.
Mutual Respect as a Constitutive Norm	The DDS system makes abuse of power impossible because the participation of everyone in decision-making creates permanent mutual oversight that no individual actor can evade.

3.2 Digital Direct Democracy — ddsAI and allddsAI

Technology is the instrument that makes possible in the 21st century what 18th-century democratic systems could only aspire to approximate. DDS has developed two technological systems that radically transform the relationship between citizens and power:

ddsAI system

The ddsAI system is DDS's institutional artificial intelligence. Its specific functions in Costa Rica include:

• Real-time analysis of all legislative, budgetary or regulatory proposals, with quantified impact on different population groups.
• Translation of complex technical documents (budgets, contracts, treaties, concessions) into language accessible to all citizens.
• Fact-checking and misinformation correction in real time, with identification of sources and full context.
• Automated monitoring of compliance with promises and commitments by all public officials.
• Simulation of the impact of public policies before their implementation, based on historical data and validated models.

allddsAI System — The Democracy of AIs

allddsAI is a unique global innovation: a collective artificial intelligence system where multiple specialized AIs, with different perspectives and approaches, deliberate on relevant issues and present their divergent analyses to citizens. This ensures that no single perspective—not even that of the DDS system itself—can monopolize the analysis of reality.

FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE: Information monopoly is the most effective form of political control. The major Costa Rican media outlets are concentrated in the hands of a few businesses with direct economic interests in political decisions. allddsAI breaks this monopoly by providing every citizen with free, comprehensive, and independent access to all relevant information, directly on their devices, in real time.

3.3 Micro-Groups, Fractality and Real Representation

The DDS organizational model is based on the formation of micro-groups of five people, which are then aggregated into groups of 25, 125, 625, and so on, in a fractal structure that scales from the neighborhood to the national level. This model has concrete applications in Costa Rica:

• Each Costa Rican neighborhood — from Hatillo in San Jose to Bribri in Limon — constitutes the basic unit of real democratic participation.
• Micro-groups choose their specialist representatives based on proven competence, not on popularity or political affinity.
• Communication between levels is bidirectional and permanent: citizens can revoke mandates, introduce proposals and oversee decisions at any time.
• The fractal system ensures that the specific local realities of Guanacaste, Limón or indigenous territories have effective representation without being dissolved into national averages that make them invisible.

3.4 Non-Transferable Collective Ownership

This principle is perhaps the most radical and the most necessary of DDS. It establishes that the natural resources and fundamental public goods of each nation belong to its people permanently, irrevocably, and inalienably. In Costa Rica, this means:

• Sources of drinking water — a first-rate water resource in a country with high rainfall — cannot be privatized under any legal form.
• Costa Rican biodiversity, including the genetic resources of its flora and fauna, belongs to the Costa Rican people and cannot be appropriated by pharmaceutical or biotechnology corporations.
• The coasts, territorial seas, continental shelf and marine resources are an inalienable collective heritage.
• Energy infrastructure, especially the renewable electricity generation system (ICE), must remain under public control with participatory citizen management.
• The radio spectrum and telecommunications infrastructure are public goods; their concession to private entities must be temporary, conditional, controlled and revocable.

 

4. POLITICAL AND INSTITUTIONAL PROGRAM

DDS's political program for Costa Rica begins with a radical diagnosis: the current institutional system cannot substantially reform itself because those who control the institutions have a direct interest in maintaining them as they are. Reform must come from the bottom up, from organized citizens, using mechanisms that the elites cannot capture.

4.1 Electoral System Reform

Current problem

Closed lists eliminate the direct relationship between elected officials and voters. Public funding favors established parties. The representation threshold excludes legitimate voices. The four-year term makes accountability late and ineffective.

DDS Proposal

• Implementation of open lists with voting preference for a specific person within each party.
• Creation of the mechanism for recall of mandate by citizen initiative (50,000 digitally verified signatures), applicable to any popularly elected office from the municipal level to the presidential level.
• Open and mandatory primaries for all parties that receive public funding.
• Strict and verifiable limits on electoral spending, with real-time citizen auditing via the ddsAI platform.
• Gradual reduction of the number of deputies (from 57 to 45) with an increase in their legislative research resources and technical staff.
• Mandatory rule: Deputies elected under the DDS program are contractually obligated to vote according to the position determined by their micro-groups, except for technical reasons duly justified to their constituents.

Concrete Example and Expected Consequences

Example: A representative for San José elected under the DDS (Democratic Delegation System) receives, in real time before each vote, the position of their 5,000 grassroots micro-groups on the issue at hand. If a majority of their constituents support a water protection law, they are obligated to vote in favor. If they change their position without verified technical justification, the recall process is automatically initiated. Consequence: Costa Ricans stop electing individuals who then do as they please; they begin electing delegates who carry out the expressed will. Politics ceases to be representation and becomes controlled delegation.

4.2 Institutional Reform Against Corruption

Current problem

The oversight bodies (Comptroller's Office, Ombudsman's Office, Public Prosecutor's Office) are insufficient, slow, and sometimes politically influenced. Corruption in public contracts, concessions, and awards is endemic. The impunity of the powerful destroys the credibility of the rule of law.

DDS Proposal

• Creation of the National Platform for Total Transparency (PNTT): all State tenders, contracts and payments published in real time in a format auditable by citizens through ddsAI.
• Creation of the Citizen Court of Accounts: a randomly selected citizen jury with independent technical advisors to judge high-level corruption cases.
• Absolute prohibition of revolving doors: no public official may work for companies that have contracted with the State for five years after leaving office.
• Mandatory lobbying registry with publication of all meetings between officials and representatives of private interests.
• Classifying as treason against popular sovereignty the handover of natural resources or essential public goods to private interests without a binding democratic process.

EXPECTED IMPACT: Expected consequence in 5 years: 60% reduction in cases of corruption in public procurement, recovery of between ₡50,000 and ₡80,000 million annually currently diverted to corruption, and partial restoration of citizen trust in public institutions.

4.3 Reform of the Justice System

• Complete digitization of the judicial system with real-time citizen access to the status of all processes (with protection of personal data).
• System of ongoing evaluation of judges and prosecutors by citizens who have been involved in their cases, with publication of performance indicators.
• Reduction of the statute of limitations for corruption and organized crime offenses.
• Creation of specialized courts for organized crime, drug trafficking and gender violence with specific training and resources.
• Strengthened Public Defender's Office to guarantee real access to justice for citizens without resources.

 

5. ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL PROGRAM

DDS's economic program for Costa Rica does not adopt a simplistic ideological label. It is neither 'left' nor 'right' in the conventional sense. It is a program based on evidence, economic logic, and respect for popular sovereignty. It takes what works from the market and what works from the state, and discards what only benefits the elites on both sides.

5.1 Tax Reform for Justice and Sovereignty

Diagnosis

The Costa Rican tax system is regressive in its actual design: the relative tax burden falls more heavily on the middle and lower classes than on large corporations. Exemptions for free trade zones, special regimes for large companies, and tax evasion by higher-income sectors constitute a permanent subsidy from ordinary citizens to the economic elite.

DDS proposals

• Creation of a real progressive tax on net worth (not just income): 0% for assets under ₡50 million, progressive scale up to 2% per year for assets over ₡2 billion, with technically robust anti-avoidance mechanisms.
• Complete review of all current tax exemptions with verifiable public interest criteria: any exemption that does not generate documentable social benefits proportional to its tax cost is eliminated.
• Tax on speculative financial transactions (Costa Rican Tobin Tax) of 0.1% on non-productive financial operations.
• Radical strengthening of the Tax Administration (TA) with AI technology for the detection of evasion, avoidance and offshore structures.
• Implementation of basic social investment income: the recovered tax revenues directly finance productive investment programs in communities with lower human development indices.

Concrete Example

A multinational company with operations in a free trade zone currently receives annual tax exemptions of ₡3 billion. Under the DDS (Decentralized Development System), it must demonstrate that it generates quality formal employment, transfers technology, and pays wages above the national median. If it complies, it keeps the benefit. If it does not, it loses it. Expected outcome: the tax exemptions become a development policy instrument, not a corporate privilege.

5.2 Public Debt Management

Diagnosis

Costa Rica's public debt, at 60-61% of GDP, is not a neutral figure. It is the consequence of decades of political decisions that prioritized patronage spending over productive investment, and fiscal deficits over government efficiency. Servicing this debt consumes resources that should be allocated to education and healthcare.

DDS proposals

• Citizen audit of public debt: item-by-item review of the debt to identify commitments that were contracted without an adequate democratic process or that financed verified corruption.
• Renegotiation of debt terms with international creditors under the principle of ability to pay without sacrificing essential services for the population.
• Fiscal rule with mandatory investment component: fiscal adjustment cannot be carried out exclusively through reduction of social spending; it must include a proportional component of increased income from sectors with greater ability to pay.
• Creation of the Sovereign Fund for Natural Resources: the income derived from the exploitation of natural resources is allocated to an intergenerational fund with citizen governance, not to cover operating deficits of the central government.

5.3 Endogenous and Inclusive Economic Development

The Problem of the Dual Model

The Costa Rican model has created two parallel economies: the free trade zone and advanced export economy (dynamic, well-paid, and globally integrated) and the domestic economy (slow, informal, low-wage, and disconnected from export dynamism). DDS proposes closing this gap without destroying the strengths of the export sector.

DDS proposals

• Active industrial policy: identification of five strategic sectors for endogenous development (sustainable agro-industry, community tourism, decentralized digital economy, high-value health services, biotechnology based on national biodiversity) with coordinated state support and citizen participation in defining priorities.
• National public-cooperative microfinance system: universal access to productive credit at affordable rates for micro and small businesses, with integrated technical assistance and support in formalization.
• National public procurement policy: The Costa Rican State prioritizes national suppliers in its acquisitions, with verifiable quality standards and fair competitive conditions.
• Decentralized technology corridor: creation of high-speed digital infrastructure in all provinces, not just in the Greater Metropolitan Area, to enable the development of the digital economy throughout the national territory.
• Solidarity economy law: modern legal framework for cooperatives, worker-owned enterprises and social economy organizations, with access to the same incentives as conventional companies.

5.4 Economic Sovereignty and Treaty Renegotiation

Costa Rica has numerous Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) in force, which in some cases limit the State's capacity to regulate in the public interest. DDS proposes:

• Review of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanisms in all existing free trade agreements: Costa Rica cannot be sued for making legitimate public policy decisions in defense of citizen welfare.
• Renegotiation of clauses that impede national public procurement policies, protection of nascent industries, or regulation of strategic sectors.
• Active trade policy with Central America and the Caribbean to create a more diversified regional market that is less dependent on the United States and the European Union.

INALIENABLE SOVEREIGNTY: Costa Rica's wealth belongs to the Costa Rican people. No treaty signed by a government—without binding consultation with the citizenry—can grant foreign corporations the right to sue the Costa Rican state for defending its natural resources or its social welfare. DDS proposes submitting all current free trade agreements to democratic review and ratification through a binding referendum.

 

6. SOCIAL AND WELFARE PROGRAM

DDS's social program is based on a principle that no honest economist can refute: a more equal society is a more efficient, more creative, safer, and more prosperous society for everyone, including the wealthy. Extreme inequality is not only morally unacceptable—it is economically counterproductive.

6.1 Reinforced Universal Social Security System

The CCSS: Costa Rica's Best Social Asset

The Costa Rican Social Security System (CCSS) is one of the most outstanding achievements in Costa Rican history. Its universal social security model has protected generations of Costa Ricans for decades. DDS does not propose privatizing or dismantling it. It proposes strengthening, modernizing, and protecting it from the threats that weaken it.

• Firm execution of the State's debt to the CCSS: The Costa Rican State owes the CCSS billions of colones. This debt is being paid in a scheduled and prioritized manner.
• Complete closure of social security evasion by companies, with a digital system of continuous auditing and proportionate and expedited sanctions.
• Elimination of maximum contribution limits for high-income earners: those who earn more, contribute more to the solidarity system.
• Participatory management of the CCSS: incorporation of democratically elected citizen representatives at all levels of decision-making within the institution.
• Investment in medical technology and telemedicine to reduce waiting lists and extend coverage to remote rural areas.

6.2 Decent Housing for All

• National social housing program with participatory management: communities define the design and location of housing projects, eliminating the imposition of inadequate solutions from the central State.
• Progressive tax on real estate speculation: owners of urban land without productive use pay a tax that increases over time, discouraging speculative retention and generating resources for social housing.
• National Urban Land Bank: the State acquires and manages well-located land for social interest projects, breaking the monopoly of the private real estate market over urban development.
• Housing cooperatives: a model where groups of citizens organize collectively to build and inhabit their homes, with technical and financial support from the State.

6.3 Reducing Inequality — Structural Measures

Costa Rican inequality cannot be solved with social transfers. It requires changes to the rules of the economic game.

• Indexed real minimum wage: the minimum wage is automatically adjusted with inflation and the productivity of the corresponding sector, ensuring that it never loses purchasing power.
• Active policies for formalizing employment with gradual incentives for micro-enterprises in transition, not just sanctions.
• Universal care system: a public network of childcare centers and care for the elderly, enabling the full integration of women into the formal labor market.
• Reform of the pension system to guarantee decent pensions for informal workers through mixed savings schemes with state guarantee.

GENDER EQUALITY: Inequality in Costa Rica is largely a matter of gender inequality. Women earn on average 15-20% less than men for equivalent work, have much lower labor force participation rates, and perform the majority of unpaid care work. No social policy is complete if it does not address this structural dimension.

 

7. CITIZEN SECURITY PROGRAM

Citizen security is the fundamental condition for the exercise of all other rights. Without security, there is no real freedom, no sustained economic development, and no social cohesion. DDS proposes a comprehensive security approach that addresses the root causes of crime while simultaneously strengthening the State's capacity to contain and punish it.

7.1 Social Prevention Strategy

Guiding Principle

Organized crime and drug trafficking are businesses. Like any business, they need employees. The 30.6% youth unemployment rate and 26.8% poverty rate among young Costa Ricans represent the largest free recruitment program that organized crime could wish for. Crime prevention begins by giving young people real alternatives.

• Costa Rican Youth in Action Program: guarantee of certified technical training, employment, entrepreneurship or paid community participation for any young person between 18 and 25 years of age who is not in the formal education system or in formal employment.
• High-quality community centers in at-risk areas: spaces for training, sports, art, culture and psychosocial care, with decent infrastructure and programs designed by the communities themselves.
• Early family intervention: support programs for vulnerable families to prevent neglect and abuse, which are documented risk factors for future involvement in crime.
• Evidence-based drug policy: drug use is primarily a public health problem, not a criminal one. Treatment and prevention have a greater social return than penalizing the user.

7.2 Institutional Strengthening of Security

• Full professionalization of the Public Force: salary increase conditioned on verifiable continuous training, police ethics standards and citizen performance evaluation.
• Police technology: intelligent video surveillance systems with citizen governance and privacy guarantees, predictive analysis of crime hotspots, secure inter-agency communications.
• Integrated criminal intelligence: real coordination between the OIJ, the Public Force, the Public Ministry and the customs authorities to attack organized crime networks in their financial and logistical nodes, not just in their lower-level executors.
• Smart border control: investment in technology for the detection of arms, drug and human trafficking without criminalizing regular migration or violating human rights.

7.3 Reform of the Penitentiary System

Costa Rican prisons are currently breeding grounds for crime. Overcrowding, inhumane conditions, and the lack of serious rehabilitation programs guarantee recidivism. DDS proposes:

• Investment in real rehabilitation: educational programs, technical training and high-quality addiction treatment within the prison system.
• Restorative justice for minor offenses: alternatives to incarceration that repair the damage caused, reintegrate the offender, and cost less than prison.
• Eliminating impunity for white-collar crime: economic and corruption crimes must have real criminal consequences, not just administrative sanctions or fines that can be absorbed by powerful companies.

DDS GOALS: Expected outcome in 8 years: 40% reduction in the homicide rate through a combination of social prevention, police professionalization, and dismantling of financial criminal networks. 35% reduction in prison recidivism with effective rehabilitation programs.

 

8. EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM AND RESEARCH

Education is the most profitable investment a society can make. Not as a slogan, but as a verifiable fact: every dollar invested in quality education generates between $8 and $15 in economic and social returns over time. Costa Rica already invests the appropriate percentage. The problem is how it invests and what it gets back from that investment.

8.1 Reform of Preschool and Primary Education

• Truly universalizing quality preschool education: the current 40% coverage rate for low-income families is unacceptable. DDS goal: 95% coverage within four years, with childcare centers integrated into kindergartens.
• Reduction of group sizes in primary school to a maximum of 20 students in areas of high vulnerability, with teachers with specialized training in inclusive pedagogy.
• Universal school meals with real nutritional quality: the school soda program is an investment in human capital, not an expense.
• Universal technological provision: every primary and secondary school student has access to a connected device, with high-quality national educational platforms accessible offline.

8.2 Reform of Secondary and Technical Education

• Radically updated secondary school curriculum: less memorization, more critical thinking, problem-solving, collaborative work, and advanced digital literacy.
• Costa Rican dual system: real articulation between INA, MEP and companies to create technical training programs where students learn by doing in real productive environments.
• Scientifically based vocational guidance: early identification of talents and personalized support to prevent talented young people from leaving the system due to a lack of adequate guidance.
• Education for democracy: real civic training that includes how the DDS system works, how to verify information, and how to participate effectively in collective decisions.

8.3 University, Research and Innovation

• Strengthening the system of public universities (UCR, ITCR, UNA, UNED) as research and development centers serving the public interest.
• National research and innovation policy: 2% of GDP allocated to R&D, with half in public universities and the other half in public-private agreements with transfer of results to the public domain.
• Research on national biodiversity: Costa Rica's biological wealth is a potential source of pharmaceutical, agricultural, and biotechnological innovation. Its benefits should remain in Costa Rica, not in the hands of foreign corporations.
• Territorial innovation network: innovation centers in each province that connect universities, local SMEs and entrepreneurs with technical and financial resources for the development of solutions to local problems.

 

9. ENVIRONMENTAL, ENERGY AND INFRASTRUCTURE PROGRAM

Costa Rica has an extraordinary competitive advantage that many countries envy: a nearly entirely renewable energy system, unique biodiversity, and an environmental culture that has made conservation part of the national identity. DDS proposes to capitalize on these strengths in ways that benefit all Costa Ricans, not just the export or tourism sectors.

9.1 Defense and Management of Natural Heritage

• Water as a constitutional right and inalienable public good: no private concession can limit communities' access to drinking water. The fee for the use of surface and groundwater is being reviewed and increased for large industrial and intensive agricultural users.
• Strengthening SINAC with adequate resources and personnel for the real management of protected areas, combating wildlife trafficking and controlling illegal activities in conservation zones.
• Expanded and improved Payments for Environmental Services (PES): Costa Rica's PES program is internationally recognized. DDS proposes expanding it, improving its management, and linking its benefits especially to rural and indigenous communities.
• Moratorium on oil exploration and exploitation in Costa Rican territory and waters: the commitment to renewables is irreversible and non-negotiable.

9.2 Energy Policy

• ICE as a world-class public company: instead of privatizing it, modernize it with professional management, citizen participation in its governance and a mandate of universal quality service.
• Democratizing solar power generation: a national program of solar panels on the roofs of homes, schools, and public buildings, with accessible financing and fair net metering.
• Electromobility as a State policy: electric public transport in all major cities by 2030, with the production of charging infrastructure distributed throughout the territory.
• Green hydrogen: harnessing renewable electricity generation capacity to produce green hydrogen as a fuel for export and domestic industrial use.

9.3 Road Infrastructure and Connectivity

• National Road Infrastructure Plan with financing guaranteed by law and citizen governance: priority projects are defined by the citizens, not by builders or politicians.
• Public works contracts with real penalties for non-compliance with deadlines and costs, and with permanent digital citizen auditing.
• National fiber optic network: guaranteed high-speed connectivity throughout the territory, including rural and indigenous areas, as a basic infrastructure of the 21st century.
• Efficient intercity transport: investment in intercity electric rail connecting major cities, reducing dependence on private cars and congestion in the Greater Metropolitan Area (GAM).

 

10. NATIONAL WEALTH BELONGS TO THE PEOPLE — AN INALIENABLE PRINCIPLE

This chapter sets forth the most fundamental principle of DirectDemocracyS, as applied to Costa Rica and all countries where DDS operates: the wealth of each nation belongs to the people of that nation, permanently, irrevocably, and inalienably. No government, no parliamentary majority, no international treaty can legitimately transfer this patrimony into private hands without the explicit, informed, and binding consent of the entire citizenry.

DDS UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLE: DDS applies this rule in all countries where it operates, without exception and without negotiation. It is the principle that the powerful fear most and that the people need most. In Costa Rica, as in any other part of the world, popular sovereignty over common resources is the foundation of everything else.

10.1 Inventory of Costa Rican National Wealth

The wealth of the Costa Rican people, protected under the DDS principle of non-transferable collective ownership, includes:

• Water resources: Costa Rica has one of the highest densities of rivers and watersheds in the world. Water is life and power. Its private control is unacceptable.
• Biodiversity and genetic resources: 5% of the world's biodiversity in 0.03% of the territory is a treasure of incalculable value for pharmacology, biotechnology and the agriculture of the future.
• Marine heritage: territorial seas, continental shelf, Cocos Island and its surrounding waters are the heritage of the Costa Rican people.
• Subsoil and mineral resources: Costa Rican subsoil resources, including possible deposits of strategic minerals, belong to the people and must be exploited, if exploited, exclusively under public control and benefit.
• Radio spectrum: spectrum is a scarce and essential resource in the digital economy. Its private allocation must be temporary, conditional, transparent, and revocable.
• Critical infrastructure: ports, airports, main roads and the electricity grid are assets of strategic interest whose privatization requires direct democratic ratification.

10.2 Democratic Protection Mechanism

DDS proposes the constitutionalization of the principle of non-transferable collective ownership through a reform that establishes:

• Any process of granting or alienating natural resources or strategic public assets requires a binding referendum with a qualified majority of 60%.
• The referendum must be preceded by a minimum period of 120 days of citizen information through ddsAI platforms with independent and comprehensive analysis of the long-term impact.
• Democratic retroactivity: existing concessions that do not meet verifiable public benefit standards are reviewable through the same democratic process.
• Creation of the National Registry of Public Wealth (RNRP): a permanent, updated and publicly accessible inventory of all collectively owned resources and assets.

Anticipated Consequences

Short-term consequence: intense resistance from economic actors who currently benefit from favorable conditions regarding public resources. DDS anticipates this resistance and openly denounces it as the normal reaction of those whose privileges are threatened, not as a valid argument against democratic principles.

Medium-term consequence: significant increase in public revenues derived from the exploitation of natural resources, which are redistributed equitably through the Sovereign Fund for Natural Resources.

Long-term consequence: Costa Rica becomes the first country in Latin America where popular sovereignty over natural resources is a verifiable constitutional fact, not just electoral rhetoric. This example has extraordinary potential for regional influence.

 

11. IMPLEMENTATION, TIMELINE AND ANTICIPATED CONSEQUENCES

DDS is pragmatic in implementing its program. The systemic change we propose is profound, but it cannot be abrupt. History shows that changes that are too rapid generate unmanageable resistance and often backfire. The key lies in the correct sequence: first, reforms that build trust and demonstrate results; then, deeper structural transformations, backed by accumulated experience and strengthened democratic legitimacy.

11.1 Phase 1: Foundations (Years 1-2)

• Legislative approval of the National Platform for Total Transparency (PNTT).
• Launch of the first 500 DDS micro-groups in the country's main cities.
• Launch of the Costa Rican Spanish-language ddsAI platform with real-time analysis of the national budget.
• First review of tax exemptions with verifiable public interest criteria.
• Start of the program to universalize preschool education in areas of high vulnerability.
• Launch of the Costa Rican Youth in Action program in the five areas with the highest youth unemployment.

11.2 Phase 2: Consolidation (Years 3-4)

• Implementation of the progressive net worth tax.
• Extension of DDS micro-groups to the entire national territory (at least 5,000 active groups).
• Approval of the referendum on the constitutionalization of non-transferable collective property.
• Beginning of the reform of the judicial system with courts specialized in organized crime.
• Electromobility program in public transport of the Greater Metropolitan Area.
• First public evaluation of results with verifiable indicators published on the ddsAI platform.

11.3 Phase 3: Structural Transformation (Years 5-8)

• Constitutional reform of the electoral system towards open lists and imperative mandate.
• Implementation of the Sovereign Fund for Natural Resources with full citizen governance.
• National network of micro-groups with active participation of more than 30% of the adult population.
• Documented 40% reduction in the homicide rate.
• The CCSS health system is financially sound and has waiting lists reduced by 60%.
• Costa Rica as the world's first example of digital direct democracy on a national scale: a reference for the rest of the world.

AREA	5-YEAR TARGET INDICATOR	TARGET INDICATOR 8 YEARS
Democracy	500,000 citizens in micro-groups	2.5 million in direct democracy
Economy	GINI reduced to 44	GINI reduced to 40; poverty below 10%
Security	-25% homicides	-40% homicides; -35% recidivism
Education	95% preschool coverage	PISA +15 points in reading comprehension
Fiscal	Deficit below 2% of GDP; debt below 55%	Structurally balanced deficit
Corruption	-40% in perception of corruption	Costa Rica ranks in the world's top 20 for transparency

 

12. CONCLUSIONS — THE FUTURE COSTA RICA DESERVES

Costa Rica is a country with extraordinary capabilities. It has a democratic tradition that few countries in the world can match. It has a high-quality human capital. It has invaluable natural resources. It has institutions that, with all their imperfections, are stronger than those of most of its neighbors. It has a culture of peace that is part of its deepest identity.

And yet, too many Costa Ricans live in poverty. Too many young people have no jobs and no hope. Violence that once seemed foreign has reached their neighborhoods. Inequality grows while the economy grows. Politicians make promises they don't keep. Institutions protect the powerful more than the weak.

This is not Costa Rica's inevitable fate. It is the consequence of a system that can and must be changed. DirectDemocracyS offers that change—not as a utopia, but as a concrete, verifiable, step-by-step, implementable institutional architecture with realistic timelines and measurable results.

THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE: Direct, real, and permanent democracy is not a radical idea of the left or the right. It is the logical consequence of the founding principle of all democracies: power belongs to the people. DDS simply proposes taking this seriously. Without exceptions. Without half measures. Without waiting four years. Now.

In February 2026, the Costa Rican people chose to continue the process of change. DDS proposes to make that change real, profound, and permanent. Not a change of government. A change of system. Not a change of face, but of structure. Not of promises, but of verifiable mechanisms where the citizen is the protagonist, not a spectator.

The wealth of Costa Rica belongs to the Costa Rican people. The power to decide the future of Costa Rica belongs to the Costa Rican people. DirectDemocracyS exists to ensure this is a verifiable institutional reality, not just a campaign slogan destined to be forgotten.

Costa Rica can achieve it. The Costa Rican people can achieve it. With DirectDemocracyS, with logic, with truth, with mutual respect, and with the democratic will of all.

directdemocracys.org · allddsAI · ddsAI

Authentic, complete, continuous, direct, rapid, competent, immediate, safe and protected democracy.

Forever. Only for the People.