Some of the proposals in my election manifesto need a little unpacking (more than is possible in a platform notecard which needs to be brief). I've suggested we should abolish the New Guild monopoly on building so I'd like to explain what I mean by this.
First, a bit of history. The (old) Guild AKA the Artisanal Collective was one of the institutions of government right at the start. The idea was to have three branches selected in different ways - RA (elections), Scientific Council (self-selecting meritocracy) and the Guild (apprentice-based, bureaucratic-collectivist syndicalism). There was no clear executive authority like we now have with the Chancellor.
When we set up the Chancellor as an institution of government, we abolished the old Guild and the New Guild was established as a Non-Governmental Organisation. Unfortunately, when the NG was set up it was thought to be a good idea for the RA to 'ratify' the charter of the NG thereby blurring the boundaries between governmental and non-governmental organisations. Since then the RA has tended to treat the NG as a sort of government adviser on, for example sim expansion and improvement. The NG, like the old Guild, is open to all citizens but this is part of its weakness in my view. Like all direct democracies it is open to the 'tyranny of who shows up' with the potential for a determined clique to take it over.
Now the NG only has a de facto monopoly on building; we have Beathan's Private Development Act from many years ago which would allow the CDS to buy a sim that had been privately developed by others outside the NG. But, for any projects which are actively considered by the CDS we tend to look to the NG to implement them. I think we should be open to employing other groups of builders (or individuals) both within and outside the CDS along with the NG when we consider new sim projects or improvement of our existing sims.