Project Open Democracy

There is a growing perception that democracies and constitutional republics like the U.S. are faltering as effective forms of governance, as evidenced by increasing distrust in politicians and political processes, including democratic elections.

While the principle of democracy may not be failing, representative democracy—like the outdated taxi industry—struggles to function effectively in today’s complex, interconnected, and polarized world.

The answer to the stagnation of the taxi industry was not better managers and more regulation, but a revolution in the form of ridesharing. Similarly, the solution to the failings of representative democracy is not simply better candidates, but a transformation: a shift to open democracy.

We now have both the concept and technology needed to transition from representative democracy to open democracy, built upon a shared vision.

This transition will allow us to address the myriad of social, economic, and political problems plaguing the modern world, both locally and globally.

WHAT IS OPEN DEMOCRACY?

Open democracy empowers people to participate more fully in governance, not just through periodic elections, plebiscites, or referendums, but on an ongoing, issue-by-issue basis and, where applicable, at a global scale.

Rather than dismantling representative democracy, open democracy seeks to modernize it by bringing democratic processes into the information age, united in purpose through a common vision.

Unlike direct democracy, open democracy is non-binding. It simply provides the means by which elected officials can gauge public sentiment before enacting policies or making extreme decisions, like engaging in war.

Beyond Citizen Assemblies

Open democracy takes the idea of citizen assemblies and brings it into the information age by utilizing technology to expand the assemblies to include potentially millions of people through online discussion, debate and voting, on a global scale.

This means that anyone, anywhere with a phone, computer and internet connection can participate in key decisions that may be decided and implemented locally, but made better through feedback from outside the immediate region or location.

For example, the recent actions by the U.S. administration, including imposing tariffs, cutting foreign aid, seeking deportations and funding military conflicts, have enormous global implications and seeking global feedback would have better guided their implementation, mitigating mistakes and errors and preventing undue suffering.

Beyond just counting voting

Open democracy utilizes AI in the following key ways by:

• analyzing data to recognize patterns of ideas and concerns,
• providing participants with a tool to interrogate the feedback to better understand any issue,
• tracking the reputation and expertise of participants and incorporating it in the feedback results. For instance, the feedback from a reputable climate scientist would be given greater weight than just an ordinary citizen. Similarly, the feedback of someone with a high PByT reputation rating would be given more weight than someone who just joined.

This forms the basis a new type of mass online deliberation that is both quantitative and qualitative, with results that are verifiable, analyzable and instantly available.

The same process can be applied to developing the most important element of any democratic system - a common vision that begins to unite and increasingly divided world.

Beyond Disunity

A common vision is crucial for a healthy democracy as it provides a shared purpose and direction, fostering a sense of unity and belonging among individuals and groups.

When people share a vision of a desirable future, they are more likely to cooperate, collaborate, and prioritize the collective good over individual interests. This shared understanding can also lead to greater trust and social solidarity, making communities more resilient and able to navigate challenges together.

Central to Project Open Democracy is the idea of a common vision and the initial draft is now available for consideration, debate and discussion.

Beyond the lobby industry

One of the biggest challenges for modern democracies is how to limit the influence of lobby industry, which amounts to nothing less than state capture.

Under state capture, policymaking doesn’t work the way most people believe it does, and neither do elections. Under state capture, the rule-making machinery itself is the prize, including the ability to define what constitutes corrupt or illicit behaviour in the first place.

Under open democracy, lobby groups will forced to put their case directly to the people instead of spending millions on influencing politicians behind closed doors, or rigging elections to ensure their preferred candidates get elected.

Beyond the United Nations

The United Nations once offered hope in nations coming together to resolve disputes, issues and global problems. Today, it is increasingly becoming an irrelevant, unwieldy institution made toothless by the veto power held by the five permanent members of the Security Council. Open democracy powered by technology is the natural evolution of this institution.

US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

Americans have put their faith in president Donald Trump to address the failures of representative democracy in America.

President Trump's election has, however, hardened rather than healed the divisions making the future of the nation uncertain: A house divided against itself cannot stand.

Project Open Democracy opens the path to not only uniting an increasingly divided nation but, by extension, uniting an increasingly divided world that is emboldening the authoritarians, the dictators and the other enemies of democracy.

TAKE ACTION

Have your say on the 8 key principles of open democracy and help begin the transformation of the free world to open democracy, starting with ending the scourge of the lobby industry.