DIRECTDEMOCRACYS

Global Political System of Direct Democracy

POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC PROGRAM

FINANCIAL AND SOCIAL

FOR THE EASTERN REPUBLIC OF URUGUAY

Comprehensive analysis of the current situation · Systemic critique · Concrete solutions

DDS system implementation proposal · ddsAI and allddsAI tools

Written in Spanish

Version: 1.0 — Year 2025-2026

www.directdemocracys.org

PRELIMINARY NOTE: DDS LOGIC

This document was prepared by DirectDemocracyS (DDS) using its characteristic methodology: analysis based on logic, common sense, rigorous study of reality, the pursuit of truth, internal consistency, and mutual respect for all human beings without distinction. It is not a traditional party platform, but rather a structural and systemic program oriented toward the permanent common good, where the Uruguayan people—and they alone—are the absolute protagonists.

DDS does not present itself as a savior or an ideology. It presents itself as a method: the method of enabling citizens, properly informed, efficiently organized, and protected from external manipulation, to decide for themselves on every aspect of their collective lives. The fundamental principle governing all the proposals contained herein is that Uruguay's wealth and the power to decide its destiny must remain forever, and exclusively, in the hands of the Uruguayan people.

The proposed solutions are concrete, verifiable, phased in, and tailored to the Uruguayan context. Each criticism is based on real data. Each proposal is accompanied by concrete examples and the foreseeable consequences of its implementation.

 

PART I — DIAGNOSTIC ANALYSIS OF THE CURRENT SITUATION

1.1 Political Context: Post-Electoral Uruguay 2024-2025

The Uruguayan presidential elections held in November 2024 and their runoff on November 24th represented a historic moment. Yamandú Orsi, of the Broad Front, defeated Álvaro Delgado (National Party) with 52.08% of the vote to 47.92%, in a second round that saw a voter turnout of nearly 89%, one of the highest in the region. Orsi assumed the presidency on March 1, 2025, ending five years of National Party rule under Luis Lacalle Pou.

The election results reflected several simultaneous phenomena: weariness with the ruling party despite relatively favorable macroeconomic data; the public perception that economic growth had not been distributed equitably to the working classes; and the escalating security crisis that the outgoing government failed to resolve. Orsi's victory was also part of a global trend in which governing parties, even those with sound technical management, are penalized electorally due to unresolved structural frustrations.

Key Election Data — Runoff November 2024 Orsi-Cosse (FA) votes: 1,196,798 — 52.08% Delgado-Ripoll (PN) votes: 1,101,296 — 47.92% Participation: ~89% of the electoral register (2,727,120 eligible voters) Mandate: March 2025 - March 2030

However, DDS clearly points out that a change of ruling party does not equate to a structural change in the system. The Broad Front, like the National Party, operates within the framework of traditional representative democracy, where citizens exercise power only on election day and then completely cede their sovereignty to representatives who can deviate from the popular will without immediate consequences. This is the first structural problem that DDS identifies in Uruguay: the institutional architecture does not allow for a continuous, direct, or effectively protected democracy, free from external influences.

1.2 Economic-Financial Analysis: Strengths, Vulnerabilities and Contradictions

1.2.1 Macroeconomic Indicators: The Shining Facade

Uruguay stands out in Latin America for certain indicators that position it favorably: relatively solid institutions, the highest per capita income in South America along with Chile, more than 60% of its population belonging to the middle class (the highest proportion in the region), low inflation (3.6% in 2025, below the central bank's target), and an expected current account surplus by 2025 thanks to strong agricultural exports.

Poverty, which affected a third of the population in 2006, has remained around 10% over the last decade. The Gini coefficient of inequality fell from 0.46 to 0.39 between 2006 and 2023. These are real achievements that should not be underestimated.

1.2.2 Structural Vulnerabilities: What the Indicators Conceal

However, a deeper reading reveals serious structural weaknesses that no government has been able—or willing—to truly resolve:

• Public debt has climbed significantly: from 54% of GDP in 2024 it is projected to reach 58% by 2028, representing a growing burden on future generations and a dangerous dependence on international financial markets external to Uruguayan democratic control.
• Productivity is stagnant and potential growth is projected at only 2.5% average per year until 2033, insufficient to meet accumulated social demands.
• Private investment is falling persistently, limiting the prospects for quality employment and economic diversification.
• The economic growth of recent years has disproportionately benefited capital compared to labor: since COVID, the transfer of wealth to capital at the expense of workers has continued to grow, even with improvements in aggregate indicators.
• The Uruguayan economy remains highly dependent on the export of agricultural commodities (soybeans, meat, pulp), with little productive diversification and high exposure to external price shocks.
• The Uruguayan financial system remains integrated into global networks that can drain capital without any democratic control, as demonstrated by previous crises.
• The pension reform promoted by the outgoing government (Lacalle Pou) incorporated elements of individual capitalization that transfer risk to the worker and weaken the principle of intergenerational solidarity.

DDS Critique: The Mirage of Macroeconomic Welfare A country can have favorable macroeconomic indicators while simultaneously concealing a concentration of wealth that doesn't appear in poverty statistics. Uruguay's natural wealth—land, water, biodiversity, geostrategic position, and energy resources—is not truly owned by the Uruguayan people in the fullest sense. Large estates, multinational corporations, and foreign investment funds control vast agricultural areas and strategic sectors. The wealth produced within Uruguayan territory is exported in the form of dividends, royalties, and financial services, with minimal returns for the average citizen. DDS calls this 'delegated prosperity': the country generates wealth but does not collectively own it.

1.3 The Security Crisis: The Urgent Problem

Insecurity has become the number one concern for Uruguayans: according to an October 2025 survey by the consulting firm Cifra, 38% of the population cites it as their main worry, above economic problems. The data is alarming for a country that historically prided itself on being a peaceful exception in the region.

Indicator	Fact / Situation
Homicide rate 2024	10.7 per 100,000 inhabitants (almost double the world average of 5.8)
Homicides Jan-Sep 2025	277 murdered in the first 9 months of the year alone
Rate in Montevideo	16.8 per 100,000 inhabitants; in Cerro Norte it reaches 57.5
Citizen concern	38% of Uruguayans cite it as the main problem (Cifra Survey, Oct. 2025)
Security budget	More than doubled in 20 years, with worse relative results
Organized Crime Index	It worsened between 2023-2025: expansion of arms trafficking and foreign criminal actors
prison system	In structural crisis: overcrowding, low reintegration rates, internal criminal control
Drug trafficking	Territorialized gangs (e.g., 'Los Colos' vs 'Los Suárez' in Cerro Norte)

The Interior Ministry itself, under the Orsi administration, acknowledged in its July 2025 assessment that Uruguay faces "a complex, heterogeneous, and evolving scenario of crime and violence," with "the simultaneous presence of sustained armed violence, the expansion of drug trafficking, the growth of digital crimes, and institutional deficits," describing it as a "dangerous combination" with the potential for devastating consequences. The Interior Minister even went so far as to declare that the fight against drug trafficking "is a losing battle."

In response, the Orsi government presented the National Public Security Plan 2025-2035, a ten-year plan developed with the participation of 79 institutions that includes 79 strategic actions, more than 130 concrete measures, and 10 regulatory reforms. DDS considers this plan a necessary but insufficient step because it does not address the structural social causes of violence: exclusion, a lack of community belonging, the absence of real opportunities, and the lack of protection for the most vulnerable youth.

1.4 Educational Crisis: The Debt to the Future

Uruguay has historically been a leader in public education in Latin America. However, it faces a silent but profound crisis that jeopardizes its future:

• Educational performance has steadily declined in international assessments (PISA). Inequalities between students from different socioeconomic backgrounds have widened.
• Dropout rates in secondary education are a serious problem, especially in vulnerable urban and rural populations.
• The education system is not adapted to the ongoing technological revolution (artificial intelligence, automation, biotechnology), which threatens to produce a generation of structurally unemployed.
• Investment in research and development is insufficient to sustain a diversified, knowledge-based production model.
• Teachers face deteriorating working conditions, with relatively low salaries and little continuing education adapted to the 21st century.

1.5 Social Problems: The Invisible Uruguay

Behind the favorable average indicators lies an invisible Uruguay that aggregated data does not sufficiently capture:

• Concentrated child poverty: while adult poverty is low, child poverty persists at around 15-18%, with very serious intergenerational consequences for cognitive and social development.
• Gender violence: Uruguay has worrying rates of femicide and domestic violence, revealing a deep gap between progressive discourse and the daily reality of many women.
• Housing crisis: the shortage of affordable housing is growing, especially in Montevideo and metropolitan areas, with a real estate market that has been colonized by speculative investments that raise prices beyond the reach of working families.
• Accelerated demographic aging: Uruguay has one of the oldest populations in Latin America, with increasing pressures on the pension system, the health system and care services.
• Territorial inequality: the gap between Montevideo (where 40% of the population and most of the resources are concentrated) and the interior of the country remains structural and deep.
• Democratic disconnection: despite high voter turnout, a growing proportion of citizens feel that their vote does not structurally change anything, and that real decisions are made in technical and political circles far removed from everyday life.

1.6 Environmental Problems: The Price of the Extractive Model

The agricultural-export model has increasing and underestimated environmental costs:

• Contamination of aquifers and watercourses due to intensive use of agrochemicals in soybean and rice production.
• The 2023 water crisis — the worst in decades — highlighted the vulnerability of the water supply system, with Montevideo on the verge of running out.
• Soil degradation due to agricultural overexploitation and deforestation in buffer zones.
• Dependence on monoculture industries (eucalyptus for pulp) with impact on local biodiversity.
• Absence of a water sovereignty policy that guarantees water as an inalienable public good.

 

PART II — SYSTEMIC CRITIQUE: WHAT THE CURRENT SYSTEM CANNOT RESOLVE

2.1 The Structural Limits of Representative Democracy

Uruguay has one of the most solid and longest-standing democracies in Latin America. However, DDS points out that even the best representative democracies have structural limitations that no amount of partial reform can overcome.

The Five Fundamental Limits of Representation 1.     THE VOTE AS A BLANK CHECK: When citizens vote, they surrender their sovereignty for four or five years. Representatives can fail to deliver on their promises, change their position, make deals with opposing interests, or simply make mistakes, without citizens being able to intervene until the next election. Democracy is thus reduced to a fleeting moment of power, followed by years of helplessness. 2.     STATE CAPTURE: Political parties, by their very structure, tend to be captured by interest groups: corporations, unions, and sectoral lobbies. Campaign financing creates dependencies that then translate into government decisions that do not align with the common good. 3.     INFORMATION ASYMMETRY: The average citizen does not have access to the same information as political and economic actors. The media, concentrated in few hands, filters and shapes perceived reality. In the absence of neutral and independent sources, informed voting is more of an aspiration than a reality. 4.     THE PROFESSIONALIZATION OF POLITICS: Politics becomes a professional career with its own survival dynamics, where the politician's priority is their own reelection and that of their party, not necessarily the good of the citizen. This creates a political class that speaks to the media and lives for the polls. 5.     GLOBALIZATION WITHOUT DEMOCRATIC CONTROL: The most impactful economic decisions for Uruguay are made in Buenos Aires, São Paulo, Beijing, Washington, or at the headquarters of multinational corporations and investment funds. No representative democratic parliament can control global capital flows or the international value chains that determine the standard of living of Uruguayans.

2.2 The Repeated Failure of Security Policies

The case of security in Uruguay is particularly revealing of the limitations of the current system. The public security budget has more than doubled in 20 years. The results are worse. Why?

• Because the structural causes of violence — exclusion, unemployment, lack of prospects for young people, abandoned territories, arms trafficking facilitated by corruption and institutional porosity — are not addressed with police and prison investment.
• Because the prison system does not rehabilitate but rather educates in crime: Uruguayan prisons are universities of crime where criminal gangs organize, strengthen and expand.
• Because electoral logic forces governments to show 'quick results' (arrests, spectacular operations) that do not attack the underlying criminal networks but rather reorganize them.
• Because the fight against drug trafficking, in the current framework, is effectively 'a lost battle' if it is not combined with real economic alternatives for young people in vulnerable areas and with a coordinated international policy that attacks the financial flow of drug trafficking.

2.3 The Outstanding Debt to Popular Sovereignty

Uruguay has a constitution that recognizes popular sovereignty. However, in practice, the Uruguayan people do not decide on:

• The conditions of investment treaties that allow foreign companies to sue the Uruguayan state in international courts when their 'profit expectations' are affected by democratically approved laws.
• Monetary and exchange rate policy remains in the technical hands of the Central Bank with little direct accountability to the public.
• The actual ownership of strategic natural resources: water, land, subsoil, the electromagnetic spectrum.
• The conditions for refinancing public debt, which are negotiated with international organizations (IMF, World Bank) under conditions of confidentiality and with clauses that may limit the autonomy of future fiscal policy.
• International trade agreements (such as the EU-Mercosur agreement) that can affect entire sectors of the economy and employment.

 

PART III — DDS PROGRAM FOR URUGUAY: CONCRETE SOLUTIONS

The DDS program for Uruguay is structured around seven interconnected strategic pillars. Each pillar includes a specific diagnosis, detailed proposals with concrete examples, and foreseeable consequences of its implementation.

AXIS 1 — AUTHENTIC DEMOCRACY: FROM FIVE-YEAR VOTES TO PERMANENT SOVEREIGNTY

1.1 The Problem

Uruguay votes every five years with exceptional voter turnout (89% in the 2024 runoff). However, between elections, citizens have virtually no power over decisions that affect their daily lives. Referendums and popular initiatives exist, but they are exceptional instruments, slow, costly, and vulnerable to media campaigns that distort information.

1.2 The DDS Proposal: Continuous Direct Democracy

DDS proposes to implement in Uruguay a system of continuous direct democracy, organized through the fractal micro-group model that is the heart of the DDS system:

The DDS Fractal Model: From 1 to Millions Without Losing Individual Voice The basic unit of DDS is the micro-group of 5 people. Each person knows and trusts the other four. Each group of 5 chooses a representative who takes their verified positions to the next level (5 representatives = 1 coordination group of 25). This process is repeated: 25 → 125 → 625 → 3125 → and so on until the entire population is covered. The fundamental difference from traditional representation is that: •        The representative can be removed at any time by their micro-group if they fail to fulfill the mandate received. •        The mandate is specific: not an ideological blank check, but concrete instructions on each decision. •        Information flows in both directions: from bottom to top (citizen will) and from top to bottom (qualified information filtered by specialist groups). •        No collective decision can be made without having gone through all levels of the fractal, ensuring that no voice is lost. A concrete example from Uruguay: A resident of Cerro Largo has a specific proposal for water management in their department. They take it to their micro-group of 5. If the group approves it, it moves to the level of 25. The water resource specialists in the DDS group analyze it, enrich it with technical data, and provide feedback to the group. If it is approved, it moves to the departmental level. If it gains sufficient support, it reaches the national level. The entire process is transparent, recorded, and verifiable. The citizen of Cerro Largo doesn't need to go to Montevideo or meet any ministers: their voice is heard.

1.3 ddsAI and allddsAI Tools: The Technological Ally of Democracy

A real obstacle to direct democracy has always been the complexity of the issues. A citizen cannot simultaneously master fiscal policy, health policy, foreign policy, environmental regulations, and dozens of other subjects. Direct Democracy Systems (DDS) solve this problem with two complementary technological tools:

ddsAI: The Neutral Informer A specialized artificial intelligence system that provides each citizen with complete, accurate, neutral, and independent information on any matter of collective decision-making. It presents all angles of an issue without hiding facts or favoring positions. Adapt the complexity to the user's level: the same topic explained for a farmer, a student, or an economist. It works on DDS-protected platforms, immune to advertising manipulation and disinformation campaigns. For Uruguay: It reports on proposed laws, departmental budgets, trade agreements, and environmental data — in real time and in accessible languages.

allddsAI: The Democracy of AIs A system where multiple specialized artificial intelligences deliberate collectively to propose optimal solutions to human groups. No AI decides alone: the fundamental principle is that AI proposes, humans decide. allddsAI's proposals are always presented as transparent recommendations, with all the logic explained and verifiable. It integrates input from human specialist groups with AI analysis to produce enriched proposals. For Uruguay: I would analyze security policy options, educational reform models, and economic diversification strategies — presenting citizens with the options and their anticipated real consequences.

1.4 The Protected Platform: Democracy without Brainwashing

An essential condition for true democracy is that citizens decide without manipulation. Current social media and concentrated media outlets create echo chambers, amplify disinformation, and are used by political and economic actors to shape public opinion. DDS proposes the following for Uruguay:

• Implementation of the protected DDS platform as an official space for democratic deliberation: free from advertising, polarization algorithms, bots, and disinformation campaigns.
• Three-code identity verification: The ddsAI system verifies that each participant is a real person, a citizen of Uruguay (or an authorized resident), with only one active profile, thus protecting the integrity of the democratic process without exposing the citizen's public identity.
• Informational neutrality guaranteed: all information presented on the platform must meet factual verification standards. Opinions are marked as opinions; facts are marked as verified facts with their source.

1.5 Gradual Implementation in Uruguay

6. Phase 1 (Year 1-2): Creation of volunteer DDS micro-groups in each department. Launch of the ddsAI platform for citizen consultations on local issues. Formation of specialist groups by thematic area (health, education, security, environment, economy).
7. Phase 2 (Year 2-3): Expansion to national coverage. Integration of the allddsAI tool for analysis of public policy proposals. First direct national consultation on a highly relevant issue (proposal: reform of the water and sanitation system).
8. Phase 3 (Years 3-5): Coexistence of the DDS system with existing representative institutions, with the DDS system serving as a complementary mechanism for ongoing citizen oversight and proposals. Participatory constitutional reform to institutionalize continuous direct democracy.

1.6 Expected Consequences

• Progressive reduction of political alienation and abstention: when citizens feel that their voice matters continuously, their participation increases and the quality of decisions improves.
• Greater difficulty for interest groups to 'capture' the State: continuous transparency and direct participation create structural resistance to corruption and lobbying.
• Decisions of higher technical quality: the combination of collective citizen wisdom with expert analysis from specialist groups and allddsAI produces solutions that no party government can achieve alone.
• Enhanced legitimacy: policies approved directly by citizens have greater legitimacy and voluntary obedience than those imposed by decree or parliamentary law.

AXIS 2 — ECONOMIC SOVEREIGNTY: URUGUAY'S RICHES FOR URUGUAYANS

2.1 The Inviolable DDS Principle

Fundamental DDS Principle — Applicable to All Countries of the World The natural, material and symbolic riches of Uruguay belong to the Uruguayan people. The power to decide the destiny of Uruguay belongs to the Uruguayan people. This is not an ideal: it is a condition for real democratic existence.

2.2 Concrete Proposals for Economic Sovereignty

2.2.1 Non-Transferable Collective Ownership of Strategic Resources

DDS proposes for Uruguay the constitutional declaration of the following resources as non-transferable collective ownership (NTCO) of the Uruguayan people:

• Water: Uruguay suffered the worst water crisis in its recent history in 2023. Water is life, not a commodity. All water management must be under direct democratic control, with constant accountability to the public and a ban on the total or partial privatization of strategic aquifers and reservoirs.
• Agricultural land: a maximum limit on foreign ownership of agricultural land is proposed, combined with an active policy of land redistribution for collective productive projects and peasant cooperatives.
• The subsoil and its resources: subsoil resources (minerals, hydrocarbons if discovered, geothermal) must be inalienable public property, with exploitation concessions under strict conditions of fair return to society and environmental protection.
• The electromagnetic spectrum and digital infrastructure: the highways of the 21st century are digital. The radio spectrum and high-speed internet infrastructure are essential public goods that cannot be left under the exclusive control of private operators.

2.2.2 Reform of the Financial System: Controlling Capital so that it Serves the People

The Uruguayan financial system, integrated into global networks, could at any moment experience massive capital flight that destroys the savings and employment of millions of people, as occurred in past regional crises. DDS proposes:

• Public Productive Investment Bank: creation of a collectively owned financial institution (following the model of the Bank of the Eastern Republic of Uruguay but reinforced and democratized) specialized in financing long-term productive projects: value-added agro-industry, renewable energies, technology, education, infrastructure.
• Progressive taxation of speculative financial transactions: a small tax (0.1-0.5%) on short-term financial transactions that have no productive purpose, generating resources for the social budget without affecting real productive investment.
• Full transparency of financial flows: public record of all capital movements above reasonable thresholds, accessible to citizens and democratic control groups (DDS).
• Participatory review of contracts with international financial organizations: all debt refinancing agreements or loans from international organizations must be approved by direct consultation with citizens through the DDS platform, with complete information provided by ddsAI.

2.2.3 Productive Diversification and Added Value

Uruguay primarily exports raw materials (meat, soybeans, pulp, wool). Value is added in other countries. DDS proposes an industrialization and productive diversification plan based on:

• Biotechnology and precision agriculture: Uruguay has an excellent agricultural base. Transforming it into the production of high-quality food, pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, and biotechnological products multiplies its value tenfold.
• Knowledge economy: software, digital services, design, smart logistics. Uruguay has an educated workforce and a convenient time zone. It can become a regional hub for the knowledge economy if educational policy and investment in digital infrastructure are supported.
• Renewable energy exports: Uruguay already generates 97% of its electricity from renewable sources. It can export clean energy to the region and develop energy-intensive industries (such as green hydrogen production) by leveraging this unique competitive advantage.
• High-quality, low-impact tourism: more investment in cultural tourism, ecotourism, gastronomic tourism, and agritourism, which generate greater value per visitor with less environmental damage than mass tourism.

A concrete example: The Zonamérica Free Trade Zone in Montevideo demonstrates that Uruguay can attract international technology companies. DDS proposes expanding this model, but with one condition: the companies that establish themselves there must commit to transferring technological knowledge to Uruguayan universities and research centers, and to employing and training Uruguayan professionals, not just importing skilled foreign labor.

2.2.4 Progressive and Transparent Tax Reform

The Uruguayan tax system, although relatively progressive by regional standards, has areas of opacity and regressivity that favor the most concentrated capital:

• Net wealth tax: beyond income tax, taxing accumulated wealth (assets less liabilities) above reasonable thresholds, with moderate rates that generate resources without discouraging productive investment.
• Review of tax exemptions: a full public audit of all existing tax exemptions and benefits, with publication of who benefits and how much, and democratic review of which ones have legitimate justification.
• Effective fight against tax evasion and transfer pricing: Multinationals operating in Uruguay often declare their profits in low-tax jurisdictions. Uruguay must implement OECD transfer pricing standards with adequate enforcement resources.
• Total budget transparency: every peso of the public budget must be traceable by any citizen on the DDS platform, with accessible explanations of what is spent, why and with what results.

AXIS 3 — PUBLIC SAFETY: THE CAUSES, NOT JUST THE SYMPTOMS

3.1 DDS Diagnosis: Why Current Approaches Fail

The Orsi government has acknowledged the seriousness of the problem and has presented a National Security Plan 2025-2035 with 79 strategic actions. DDS values this effort but points out that it remains within a reactive-repressive framework that has demonstrated its limitations over twenty years of budget increases with diminishing results.

Urban violence in Uruguay has identifiable structural roots:

• Territories of exclusion: Montevideo neighborhoods like Cerro Norte, Villa García, and Casavalle are areas where the state primarily engages with repression and rarely offers real opportunities. Young people growing up in these areas have limited options: precarious employment, the informal economy, or criminal activity.
• Drug trafficking as an employer: in the absence of economic alternatives, drug trafficking offers income, belonging, identity, and protection. Combating it with repression alone leads to a substitution of actors, not a reduction of the phenomenon.
• Prison crisis: Uruguayan prisons have extremely high recidivism rates. They are spaces where criminal ties are strengthened, criminal hierarchies are consolidated, and rehabilitation is virtually nonexistent.
• Weapons: Uruguay has a dangerously expanding arms market. Organized crime gains access to increasingly sophisticated weaponry through regional and international networks.

3.2 DDS Proposals: Security Rooted in the Community

3.2.1 Territorial Investment in Exclusion Zones

Specific proposal: Comprehensive Territorial Transformation Program (TTI) for the 20 neighborhoods with the highest concentration of violence in Uruguay (17 in Montevideo, 3 in other cities). For each neighborhood:

• Participatory diagnosis with the inhabitants themselves using the DDS platform: what they need, what they propose, who can lead changes.
• Investment in basic infrastructure: quality public lighting (proven to reduce crime), sports and cultural spaces, high-speed digital connectivity.
• Creation of Youth Opportunity Centers with technical training, entrepreneurship, art and sports — co-financed by private companies that receive tax benefits in exchange for a real commitment to the labor reintegration of at-risk youth.
• A redesigned community policing model: officers who live in the neighborhood, know the families, and build trust. Not external intervention forces that generate hostility.

3.2.2 Radical Prison Reform

The Uruguayan prison system needs structural, not cosmetic, reform:

• Strict separation of profiles: young people without serious criminal records, adults with minor offenses, organized crime, and high-risk violent actors should be in separate systems with completely different regimes.
• Prison as a learning opportunity: Every inmate entering the system should have an individualized educational and career development plan. Upon release, they should have a certification useful for the job market.
• Alternatives to prison for non-violent offenses: community service, electronic monitoring bracelets, and drug rehabilitation programs. Relieving the prison system of cases that do not require incarceration.
• Democratic control of prisons: regular inspections by citizen committees elected through the DDS system, with mandatory publication of reports accessible to all citizens.

3.2.3 Drug Policy Based on Public Health and Harm Reduction

Uruguay was a global pioneer in cannabis regulation. DDS proposes extending this public health approach to other substances:

• Review of the policy of criminalizing drug use: drug users are people with a health problem, not criminals. Criminalizing drug use fills prisons without reducing consumption.
• Massive investment in treatment and rehabilitation: Uruguay has few quality addiction treatment centers. A national program of free and accessible treatment addresses the demand that fuels drug trafficking.
• Differential regulation of other substances: a serious study, with citizen participation through the DDS platform and analysis by ddsAI, of the regulatory models for other substances applied in countries such as Portugal (decriminalization of consumption with a drastic reduction in HIV and overdose deaths) or Switzerland (heroin under medical prescription with proven results).

3.2.4 Anti-Corruption Fight: The Invisible Link

Drug trafficking thrives where there is institutional corruption. Uruguay has relatively low corruption for the region, but recent data on the expansion of organized crime suggest increasing institutional penetration. DDS proposes:

• Protected anonymous reporting system within the DDS platform: citizens and public officials can report acts of corruption with real guarantees of anonymity verified by the three-code system.
• Automatic and periodic asset audits of all public officials in positions of responsibility, with results published on the DDS platform.
• A real ban on private financing of political campaigns: as long as parties depend on private donors for their campaigns, they will incur political debt to those donors. Exclusive, transparent, and democratically audited public financing.

AXIS 4 — EDUCATION AND KNOWLEDGE: INVESTING IN THE 21ST CENTURY

4.1 Diagnosis

Uruguay faces an educational paradox: it has a long tradition of free, secular public education that is a source of national pride, but the results in terms of effective learning, secondary school dropout rates, and adaptation to the 21st-century labor market are worrying. The technological revolution is transforming the world of work at a speed that no rigid educational system can keep up with.

4.2 DDS Proposals

4.2.1 Lifelong Adaptive and Continuous Education

The concept of education as a stage of life (childhood-adolescence) is obsolete. In the 21st century, all citizens will need to continuously update their skills. DDS proposes:

• National micro-credential system: certified short courses (4-16 weeks) in skills demanded by the labor market, accessible to working adults. Free or fully subsidized for low-income individuals.
• National educational platform integrated with ddsAI: adaptive learning system where AI personalizes content and pace for each student, identifying gaps and suggesting additional resources.
• Job retraining guarantee: any Uruguayan worker who loses their job due to automation is entitled to a job retraining program of up to 18 months, financed by a contributory fund to which companies that adopt technologies that eliminate jobs contribute.

4.2.2 Urgent Curriculum Reform

• Mandatory introduction of education in critical thinking, scientific methodology, digital literacy and financial education from primary school.
• Education in direct democracy and citizen participation: Uruguayan children must learn from a young age how democracy really works, how collective decisions are made, and what their rights and responsibilities are as citizens.
• Integrating work into the secondary school curriculum: paid internships in companies, cooperatives, and public organizations for all students aged 16-18. Work has educational value, and school cannot be divorced from the productive sector.

4.2.3 Real Valuation of the Teacher

Educational reform is impossible without motivated, well-trained, and well-paid teachers. DDS proposes:

• Gradual equalization of teachers' salaries with the average of professions that require equivalent university training.
• Mandatory and paid continuing education in new educational technologies, including the pedagogical use of artificial intelligence tools.
• A transparent, meritocratic recognition system: teachers who demonstrate excellent results receive additional compensation not as a competition, but as recognition of their excellence. Evaluations are participatory and consider the opinions of students, families, and peers, not just inspectors.

4.2.4 University and Research at the Service of the Country

• Increase investment in R&D to 2% of GDP in five years (currently Uruguay is well below that threshold), with emphasis on research applied to the country's real problems: water resources, sustainable agro-industry, public health, cybersecurity.
• Obligation for publicly funded research to have a measurable and verifiable technology transfer component to the national productive sector.
• Creation of a National Institute of Technology and Digital Democracy: a center of excellence dedicated to researching and developing the technological tools that make direct democracy possible at scale, including continuous improvements to the ddsAI and allddsAI systems.

AXIS 5 — SOCIAL JUSTICE AND WELL-BEING: A DECENT FLOOR FOR ALL

5.1 Universal Guaranteed Minimum Income with Voluntary Service (IMGUSV)

DDS proposes the implementation of a Universal Guaranteed Minimum Income (IMGUSV) for Uruguay, linked to a structured volunteer program that strengthens social cohesion. This system:

• It guarantees every adult Uruguayan citizen a minimum income sufficient to cover real basic needs (food, basic housing, health, connectivity), regardless of their employment status.
• It is optionally linked to voluntary community service activities: those who participate in activities of social value (care of the elderly, maintenance of public spaces, tutoring of young people, community cultural activities) receive an additional supplement.
• It gradually replaces the fragmentation of existing social programs (Uruguay Social Card, family allowances, various subsidies) with a single, transparent system administered directly by the DDS groups with citizen oversight.
• It is financed by progressive tax reform (wealth tax, review of exemptions, fight against evasion) and by the efficiency savings obtained by eliminating bureaucratic duplications.

A concrete example: A single mother with two children in Cerro Norte currently receives several fragmented and incompatible benefits, forcing her to navigate multiple bureaucratic processes. With the IMGUSV-DDS program, she receives a single monthly payment automatically calculated based on her family composition and actual circumstances, verified by a three-code system that guarantees no duplication or fraud. If she also participates as a community tutor at her neighborhood's DDS center, she receives a voluntary service supplement. The system rewards participation without penalizing non-participation.

5.2 Housing Policy: A Roof for Every Uruguayan Family

• Creation of the National Social Housing Fund financed by the tax on speculative real estate wealth (empty properties, second and third homes in high demand areas, owned by companies for speculative purposes).
• Cooperative construction program: groups of 20-50 families collectively build their homes with technical support from the State, reducing costs by 40-60% compared to commercial construction. The Uruguayan cooperative model (FUCVAM) has already proven its effectiveness; DDS proposes scaling it up massively.
• Rent regulation: indexation of rents to real inflation, prohibition of abusive evictions, mandatory mediation before any legal process, and a social rental program for families in housing emergencies.
• Rehabilitation plan for degraded historic neighborhoods: public investment in the deteriorated building stock of the historic centers of Montevideo and the cities of the interior, generating quality local employment and revitalizing the urban social fabric.

5.3 Health System: Real Universality

Uruguay has the National Integrated Health System (SNIS), which is one of the most advanced in Latin America. DDS proposes to further develop it.

• Expanding mental health coverage: mental health is the system's biggest shortcoming. Uruguay has alarming suicide rates and limited access to quality psychological and psychiatric treatment in the public system.
• Primary care strengthened with ddsAI health groups: family doctors accompanied by AI-assisted diagnostic tools that improve early detection and personalization of treatments.
• Pharmaceutical sovereignty: investment in national production capacity of essential generic medicines to reduce dependence on imports and guarantee universal access to vital treatments.

5.4 Care for Children and the Elderly

• The Orsi administration has already prioritized early childhood as a central focus. DDS supports and reinforces this priority: the first 1,000 days of life are crucial for all subsequent development. Massive investment in early childhood is the investment with the greatest proven social return.
• Community care system for older adults: networks of trained and paid caregivers that allow older adults to remain in their homes and communities for as long as possible, with dignity and without isolation.
• Pension system reform based on intergenerational solidarity: review of the individual capitalization components introduced in the previous reform to strengthen the solidarity pillar and guarantee decent pensions for all.

AXIS 6 — ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL SOVEREIGNTY

6.1 Water as a Fundamental Right

The 2023 water crisis was a warning that cannot be ignored. DDS proposes:

• Water Sovereignty Law: constitutionalization of water as an inalienable public good, with an absolute prohibition of its privatization and direct democratic management through basin councils with real citizen participation.
• Investment in water storage and distribution infrastructure: diversification of supply sources to eliminate excessive dependence on reservoirs vulnerable to drought.
• Strict regulation of agricultural water use: large-scale agricultural holdings must be accountable for water use to river basin councils and pay progressive tariffs that fund conservation and infrastructure.

6.2 Energy Sovereignty and Green Transition

Uruguay already leads in renewable energy (97% of electricity from clean sources). DDS proposes:

• Green hydrogen: Uruguay has exceptional conditions (wind, sun, water) for producing green hydrogen. A national green hydrogen plan, with collective ownership of strategic facilities, can generate high-value exports and quality jobs.
• Decarbonization of transport: accelerated program for the electrification of public and private transport, with subsidies for the transition to electric vehicles, especially for low-income families.
• Distributed energy sovereignty: promoting distributed solar and wind power generation by households, cooperatives and communities, with fair compensation schemes that remunerate the energy returned to the grid.

6.3 Sustainable Agricultural Production

• Transition plan to agroecology for family and medium-sized farms: technical assistance, accessible credit and market incentives to reduce the use of agrochemicals without sacrificing profitability.
• Strict regulation of land ownership concentration: limits on the expansion of large foreign agro-industrial conglomerates, with active preference for cooperatives, family businesses and rural communities.
• Biodiversity as a strategic asset: Uruguay's wetlands, native forests, and coastal ecosystems have real economic value in the global market for environmental services. DDS proposes that this value be captured for the benefit of the Uruguayan people, not external financial intermediaries.

AXIS 7 — IMPLEMENTATION OF DDS IN URUGUAY: CONCRETE ACTION PLAN

7.1 Initiation Phase (First 12 Months)

DDS does not impose its system. It presents it, explains it, and tests it. The first phase is voluntary construction and demonstration.

9. DDS Uruguay platform launch: registration open to all Uruguayan citizens. The first users receive the three-code identity verification system. The platform is available in Spanish with local technical support.
10. Formation of the first 500 micro-groups in the 19 departments: face-to-face and virtual workshops explaining the operation of the fractal model, the rights and duties of the members, and the use of ddsAI tools.
11. Creation of Uruguayan specialist groups: economists, lawyers, doctors, teachers, engineers, farmers, social workers — all volunteers — form the first groups of specialists who will feed the system with qualified technical knowledge.
12. First pilot consultation: participatory selection of a topic of local scope (management of a public space, proposal of municipal ordinance, etc.) to demonstrate the functioning of the system on a real and visible scale.
13. Total transparency of the process: all data, all deliberations and all results of the pilot phase are public and auditable by any external observer.

7.2 Expansion Phase (Months 13-36)

14. Growth of the micro-group network to cover 10% of the Uruguayan adult population: approximately 250,000 active participants, enough to represent a demographically representative sample of the entire society.
15. Activation of allddsAI: the first complex public policy consultations are analyzed by the allddsAI system, which presents citizen groups with the options and their expected consequences, modeled with real data from the Uruguayan economy and society.
16. Collaboration with existing institutions: the DDS system does not seek to confront the State but to complement it. It proposes collaboration agreements with municipalities, regional governments, and other government agencies that wish to use the DDS platform for binding or informational citizen consultations.
17. First impact report: open publication of the results of the first two years, with metrics on participation, quality of deliberations, demographic diversity of participants and cases of citizen proposals implemented.

7.3 Institutionalization Phase (Years 3-5)

18. Proposal for participatory constitutional reform: the DDS groups, already with broad national representation, present a citizen proposal for constitutional reform that institutionalizes continuous direct democracy, the right of recall, mandatory participatory budgeting, and water and energy sovereignty.
19. The DDS system as a permanent democratic counterweight: regardless of who governs Uruguay, the DDS system exists as a permanent mechanism for citizen control, citizen proposals, and verification of the alignment between government decisions and popular will.
20. Integration with the global DDS network: Uruguay connects with DDS groups from other Latin American countries and the world, sharing proposals, good practices and coordinating positions in international forums — always respecting the sovereignty of each people and the principle that no country interferes in the internal affairs of another.

 

PART IV — BENEFITS OF THE DDS SYSTEM FOR URUGUAY

4.1 Benefits for the Individual Citizen

Benefit	Description and Example
Real and continuous voice	Every citizen can influence collective decisions in real time, not just every five years. For example, a dairy farmer in Florida can directly propose a measure to support their sector and see it processed democratically within weeks.
Quality neutral information	ddsAI provides comprehensive and verified information on any political, economic, or social topic, without ideological bias or commercial interests. Citizens make informed decisions based on real data.
Protection against tampering	The DDS platform is protected from disinformation campaigns, propaganda, and media manipulation. What happens within it is genuine deliberation among real people.
Decent income and services	The IMGUSV guarantees a minimum standard of living for everyone. No one is excluded from the system for economic reasons.
Safety and community	Investing in the most vulnerable areas reduces violence that affects the entire community. Real security doesn't come from more police officers, but from cohesive communities with opportunities.
Continuing education	The micro-credential system and adaptive learning platform allow each person to learn what they need when they need it, throughout their entire life.

4.2 Benefits for Uruguayan Society as a Whole

• Greater social cohesion: participation in micro-groups, informed deliberation and the collective construction of solutions strengthens the social bonds that violence, inequality and polarization have deteriorated.
• Higher quality decisions: the combination of collective citizen wisdom, specialized technical knowledge and analysis by allddsAI produces better decisions than those of any isolated political or technical elite.
• Reducing corruption: The radical transparency of the DDS system creates a hostile environment for corruption. When every public expenditure is visible and every decision is traceable, the space for corruption is drastically reduced.
• Strengthened legitimacy of the political system: the institutions that survive the age of mistrust are those that can demonstrate they truly serve those they claim to represent. The DDS system provides that ongoing proof.
• Real sovereignty: Uruguay ceases to be a passive actor in the global economic system and becomes an actor that makes its own decisions based on the interest of the Uruguayan people, with complete information on the available alternatives.

4.3 Uruguay as a Global Example

Uruguay has a history of democratic pioneering: it was the first Latin American country to separate church and state, establish secular public education, legalize cannabis, and approve same-sex marriage. It has the historical tradition, the relative institutional quality, and the manageable size to be the first Latin American country to fully implement a system of continuous direct democracy on a national scale.

If Uruguay demonstrates that it is possible to govern better with more direct democracy, neutral information, and the inclusion of all citizens in decision-making, that example will spread throughout Latin America and the world. Uruguay can be in the 21st century what it was in the 20th: a laboratory of democratic progress that the world observes and learns from.

Uruguay with DDS: The Ten Fundamental Commitments 21.  Uruguay's natural resources belong permanently to the Uruguayan people and to them alone. 22.  The power to decide the destiny of Uruguay belongs permanently to the Uruguayan people and to them alone. 23.  Every Uruguayan citizen has a real and continuous voice in the decisions that affect their life. 24.  The information citizens use to make decisions is complete, neutral, and protected from manipulation. 25.  No Uruguayan citizen is excluded from the system for economic, educational, or geographical reasons. 26.  Specialist groups put their knowledge at the service of all citizens, not elites. 27.  Technology (ddsAI, allddsAI) serves citizens: it proposes, informs, but never decides in place of humans. 28.  Transparency is the norm, not the exception: all public spending, all collective decisions, all democratic processes are visible and auditable. 29.  Uruguay respects the sovereignty of all other peoples as it expects others to respect its own. 30.  The DDS system in Uruguay evolves continuously according to the will of its own citizens: no proposal of the system is permanent or unchangeable if the people decide to change it.

 

CONCLUSIONS: THE POSSIBLE URUGUAY

Uruguay is at a turning point. The Orsi government came to power with the hopes of millions of citizens who want a fairer, safer, and more sovereign country. However, history shows that no party, however well-intentioned, can single-handedly solve the structural problems analyzed in this document. The limitations of the representative system are not a matter of political will; they are inherent architectural limitations of the system itself.

DirectDemocracyS does not propose replacing the Orsi government or the Broad Front. It proposes something more ambitious and lasting: building the tools so that the Uruguayan people can govern jointly with their representatives, hold them accountable, and replace them when they fail to fulfill the popular mandate. It proposes making the popular sovereignty that the Constitution recognizes in theory, but which the political system does not guarantee in practice, real, continuous, and effective.

The Uruguay that DDS makes possible is a country where a young person from Cerro Norte has the same real opportunities as one from Pocitos; where a producer from Tacuarembó has the same voice in national decisions as a businessman from Montevideo; where water, land, and natural resources generate well-being for all Uruguayans and not just for those who control them; where security is not the privilege of the rich but the normal condition for everyone; where democracy is not an act that occurs every five years but the living fabric of collective life.

That Uruguay is possible. It's not easy. It requires work, organization, courage, and the willingness of every citizen to be an active part of their own destiny. But it is the only Uruguay that can be truly free, prosperous, and just—permanently, for everyone, and forever.

DirectDemocracyS — The system that belongs to everyone because we all belong to it.

www.directdemocracys.org