[20][21] While Deputy Counsel to the Mayor, to reduce arrests of youth who danced on New York City subways, Ian created a city-sponsored training and performance program for street dancers called “It’s Showtime NYC.”[22][23] He worked with the Chief of the NYPD Transit Division to divert subway dancers into the program, in lieu of arrest.
[24] In 2016, Ian was part of the team at GiveDirectly, a non-governmental organization operating in Kenya that launched one of the largest universal basic income experiments in history.
[3][26] According to Time Magazine, Protect Democracy is a “defender of America’s system of government against the threat of authoritarianism.”[27] The organization includes progressives, moderates, and conservatives who have worked for Democratic and Republican elected officials.
[31][32] He was credited by The Daily Beast with causing then-candidate Joe Biden to clarify and walk back remarks suggesting he would defy a congressional subpoena during the first Trump impeachment.
[33] Bassin coined the term “autocratic capture," describing “a form of systemic corruption in which politicians have improper influence on private companies [and] use government power to put pressure on businessmen and to force them, or their employees, to toe a political line.”[34]