In this paper we present a novel model for governing societies based on modern information technology, which neither relies on manual bureaucratic labour, nor depends on process-based e-government services. We analyse the flaws of the latter and argue that e-government is not feasible for sustainable governance due to permanently changing regulation; instead we propose a model in which people can govern themselves in a self-service manner by relying on constellations of data stored in a network of governmental databases to which citizens and government agents have read- and write access under conditions defined by then-valid regulation.