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The sovereignty ladder
Eight rungs of digital sovereignty from the Avi Lewis leadership campaign, ordered from default SaaS dependency at the bottom to full refusal at the top. Higher rungs carry more sovereignty; the accent fades as the rungs descend.
THE SOVEREIGNTY LADDER
↑ more sovereign
08
Refusal
NationBuilder, walked away entirely.
07
Owned code
The candidate's Astro site — ours to run.
06
FOSS tested, receipts kept
Operational grounds, not philosophical.
05
Paid partnership
solidarity.tech, with active co-development.
04
Architectural segregation
PII fenced off, AI kept at the edges.
03
Human-enforced discipline
A creative director's held line.
02
Change management
No tool solves this.
01
Accreted core
Google · Asana · Zoom · Canva — eyes open.
↓ default SaaS dependency
From
Notes from the Lewis for Leader campaign on digital sovereignty
.