Blockchain democracy chosen by lot

in blockchain •  7 years ago  (edited)

Let me start by saying that core principles described here are from a paper called "An Idealized Design for the Legislative Branch of Government" by Terry Bouricius/David Schecter and later well argued for by David Van Reybroucks in his Against Elections: The Case for Democracy.

I hope to spark a discussion regarding how "technologically feasible to operate if it were implemented" if the choice of technology would be blockchain but even open to debate the core principles themselves.

Bouricius and Schecter got their inspiration from ancient Greece and Italian city states and what they propose is a multi-body decision making system.

Decision making bodies

Agenda Council

  • Compiles the agenda, chooses topics for legislation
    Size: 150-400 people
    Composition: chosen by lot from among volunteers
    Rotation: 3 years (⅓ each year), no extension

Interest Panels

  • Propose topic-related legislation
    Size: 12 to 20 per panel, unlimited number of panels
    Composition: experts in topic who put their name forward
    Rotation: as often as they desire and terms end with every panel

Review Panel

  • Compile legislation according to the input of interest panels and experts
    Size: 150, divided up into separate panels; each panel empowered for a single domain; participants do not choose their panel but are allocated to it
    Composition: chosen by lot from among volunteers
    Rotation: 3 years (⅓ each year), no extension

Policy Jury

  • Votes on legislation; secret ballot after public presentations
    Size: 400
    Composition: chosen by lot from among all adult citizens, participation compulsory
    Rotation: per required legislation, one or several days

Operational bodies

Rules Council

  • Decides on rules and procedures of legislative work
    Size: ~50
    Composition: chosen by lot from among volunteers (former participants from other bodies)
    Rotation: 3 years (⅓ each year), no extension

Oversight Council

  • Regulates the legislative process and deals with complaints
    Size: ~20
    Composition: chosen by lot from among volunteers
    Rotation: 3 years (⅓ each year), no extension

Legislation life cycle

Topic would be raised by petition or by members of the Agenda Council, who are a collection of individuals who put themselves forward to designate topics worth discussing by other bodies. They don’t develop them further since they don’t have the power but by majority decide to include it in the agenda.
Interest Panels can be anywhere between couple of people and hundreds. They are not drawn by lot and can participate in as many as they want. Panels are 12 to 20 individuals per pod. Irrelevant if they are complete strangers or part of the same lobby, their proposals will still be evaluated by other bodies. This is a chance for people with relevant experience to use their expertise to draw up concrete policy proposals.
Review Panels can be compared to parliamentary committees. They don’t have the power to choose which panel to participate in or initiate legislation nor to vote on it but work on everything in between. They refine policy proposals brought up by interest panels and organise/host any additional hearings or expert testimonies to create best structured legislative (“referendum”) question(s) and all accompanied education material.
Policy Jury can be compared to jury service during trial. To achieve the best cross section of the voter base, they are obligated to appear (unless good reason not to) and are chosen from all adult citizens. Participation is rewarded and all travel and stay expenses are covered during the hearing/voting process. Cases are presented as per Review Panel instructions and charismatic speakers on the topic are replaced with independent case presenters. Jury, in quarantine, votes according to their conscience, according to what he or she feels best serves the general interest in the long term. The Jury decision is made by secret ballot and is final. There is no further discussion, no party discipline, no group pressure, no tactical voting, no political haggling and no back-scratching.

Gatekeepers

Rules council is responsible for developing procedures for the drawing of lots, for hearings and for voting. Since the Rules Council have the power to control the rules of the game, their changes should be limited as to they can only take effect if no objections have been raised within the full turn-over in council members (example 3y). They should also not be able to grant themselves more power. Their sole purpose is to continuously evolve the framework by keeping up with the new tech/social trends, to create ways how to demystify democracy for the general lot.
Oversight Council is to ensure public servants are following the correct procedures and that all new changes are properly communicated to all bodies. They are also called upon to further investigate complaints.

Process

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use of blockchain in the government will be amazing..

So lets say last 8 digits on our national ID/drivers license allow us to generate some type of private key. This can be done in so many different ways and is usually not game changing.
That can be some form of deterministic wallet where anonymity is guaranteed by default but you can always prove your actions.

Agenda Council would have a blockchain based strawpoll type mechanics to add topics and perform simple yes/no voting. Petitions signed with something like a QR code could feed in to the same database segment.
Random interest panel seeds are allocated by blocks and users only see discussion in their own pods.
This is where I think parts of Steem would fit in nicely. Good discussion is encouraged by the ability to be greatly rewarded. Attention/monetary seeking individuals will have a hard time deceiving other 11 people in their expertise and if they manage to do it, it is only effecting single pod.
Review Panels would require a bit less of a discussion tool and more of data archiving. Closest I can think of would be a blockchain based wikipedia. Transparent creation of educational materials for the Policy Jury, where anybody can leave a constructive comment. Since they would be today politicians, they could get paid from the currency itself.
Policy jury is randomly chosen group that at the end vote by secret ballot.

I'll leave the operational bodies for a different time.

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