[liberationtech] Open Source Political Party to Run Candidates Bound to Consituent e-Votes

[Yosem Companys]

Open Source Political Party to Run Candidates Bound to Consituent
e-Votes<http://www.wikinomics.com/blog/index.php/2008/07/11/open-source-political-party-to-runs-candidates-bound-to-consituent-e-votes/>

Will Dick <http://www.wikinomics.com/blog/index.php/author/will-dick/> July
11th, 2008

FreeGovernment.org <http://www.freegovernment.org/>, launched on July 4, is
one of a growing number of online, direct democracy communities that allow
users to vote on bills, draft their own legislation, and engage in debate.
While these communities present an opportunity to make government more
accessible and responsive to citizens, they have failed to earn any
influence over politicians.

To change that, Free Government plans on electing the politicians. The
community, which is also a political party, is looking for candidates to run
in the 2008 US Congressional election. If elected, these politicians will be
contractually obligated to vote according to the results of an online poll
of constituents (for their vote to count, users will have to first be
confirmed as registered voters).

The idea of direct democracy itself is fascinating and becoming increasingly
possible. But proponents of it normally talk about the need for us to change
the system of government. Instead, Free Government is engaging with the old
system and building their new system on top of it. Last week I
posted<http://www.wikinomics.com/blog/index.php/2008/07/02/big-tech-companies-form-patent-alliance-and-are-corporations-the-future-of-government/>
about
how the big tech companies’ new patent alliance is a work-around for
ineffectual IP laws (that our failing government has been unable to update).
Similarly, government’s inaction in the direct democracy arena could be
corrected by Free Government’s simple work-around.

The plan, though, is not pure direct democracy. Those who prefer not to make
their own voting decisions can delegate their votes to advisors. These
advisors then, become sort of like elected representatives. But there are a
few important differences:

   - They are never running for election, making their decisions less
   susceptible to variations in the political cycle.
   - Their power is never “locked in.” If they make a bad or corrupt
   decision, constituents can immediately and retroactively take their power
   away.
   - Those who do not win are still engaged in the process. When a candidate
   loses an election, we shut this (often) highly qualified person out of
   government, rather than give them an opportunity to serve their community. A
   corporate HR department would cringe at such a policy. Free Government’s
   system allows those less-popular “advisors” to continue to engage in the
   policy making process.
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