Liquid democracy
About
Purpose
Existing democratic systems have systemic problems.
- Direct democracy does not scale well to more than a few hundred people, especially in a highly technological, highly complex civilization. There are too many issues, too much information needed (some of it quite specialized) in order to reach a good decision, too many differing understandings (or misunderstandings) of the likely effects of each decision, and too many conflicting goals.
- Representative democracy creates too many opportunities for gaming the system by manipulation of unaccountable concentrations of power (UCPs), and does not provide adequate means to ensure that decisionmakers are well-informed on the issues they decide.
Liquid democracy is intended to address these issues by creating a system that minimizes UCPs while respecting expertise and allowing delegation of decisions.
Definition
Liquid democracy is a term that seems to be used in a number of different ways.
- Wikipedia says it is a synonym for "delegative democracy", in which "voting power is vested in delegates, rather than representatives."
- Make Your Laws defines it as a transferable proxy system.
InstaGov defines it as any democratic system designed to:
- give citizens control over how power is channelled
- rapidly respond to changes requested by those citizens
- not draw arbitrary boundaries, either in time or space, beyond which power may not be exercised
The combination of power-channelling control, rapid response, and lack of arbitrary boundaries – directable, changeable, and fluid – is what makes a democratic system "liquid".
Implementation
InstaGov proposes weighted proxy voting (WPV) within a liquid agenda system as the primary mechanism for liquid democracy, with other supplemental mechanisms to encourage better decisionmaking.
InstaGov also supports liquid representation as an alternative to WPV, if it has a better chance of being adopted.