[Election-Methods] delegate cascade

Abd ul-Rahman Lomax abd at lomaxdesign.com
Mon Jul 21 11:07:48 PDT 2008


Wow! Mr. Allan, you have done some excellent work. Yes, we've been 
working on this, and more -- and less.

You can see a little at http:beyondpolitics.org/wiki but most of that 
is old, the site needs work, and there is a lot of ferment and 
discussion in various places going on. We call it delegable proxy. 
It's also been called

liquid democracy
delegated voting
candidate proxy
delegated democracy

and then
Asset Voting for a form that is a hybrid, and very old in terms of 
when first proposed, 1884, but which could phase into a much more pure

There were also proposals a hundred years ago or so to implement a 
system where members of a city council would exercise votes according 
to the votes they received in the election.

But my own focus has been on nongovernmental solutions, because I 
believe that the fundamental problem of democracy is not the 
structures we use for control, as such, but the structures we use for 
collective judgement, and judgement is not the executive power, it is 
the ... judicial power! And the judicial power seeks consensus, 
generally, and exceptions often represent a breakdown of the system.

If we can solve the problem of how to negotiate informed consensus on 
a large scale, efficiently, we can deal with governmental problems 
with relative ease. Even under dictatorships, if the necessary 
communication can take place -- and that might be more possible than 
we think, particularly if the structure is wise enough to avoid 
confrontation, and I expect it would be -- the whole actual control 
structure could shift toward true social consensus, without violence 
and disruption.

But in democracies, there really is not anything stopping us, except 
inertia. In specific organizations, attempts to introduce FA/DP 
principles will almost certainly meet with opposition, to some 
degree, but apathy is a far more persistent enemy. And it's not 
really an enemy, merely a mechanism by which society filters out bad 
ideas. Give it time!

And, please, join with us. You are very, very welcome. Do remember, 
I've been thinking about this stuff for well over twenty years, and I 
can have a lot to say, sometimes.....

No more new text below.

At 08:29 PM 7/20/2008, Michael Allan wrote:
>Hello to the list,
>
>I'm a software engineer, currently developing an online electoral
>system.  I was in another discussion (link at bottom) and a subscriber
>recommended this list to me.  I have a few questions, if anyone is
>able to help.
>
>A key component of the electoral system (to explain) is what I call a
>"delegate cascade" voting mechanism.  It is intended for use in
>continuous elections (open to recasting).  The overall aim is to
>support consensus building.  In this mechanism:
>
>   ...a 'delegate' is a participant who both receives votes, like a
>   candidate, and casts a vote of her own, like a voter.  But when a
>   delegate casts her vote, it carries with it those received.  And so
>   on... Passing from delegate to delegate, the votes flow together and
>   gather in volume - they cascade - like raindrops down the branches
>   of a tree.  New voters are not restricted in their choices, but may
>   vote for anyone, their unsolicited votes serving to nominate new
>   candidates and to recruit new participants into the election.
>
>   http://zelea.com/project/votorola/d/outline.xht
>
>I can only cite 3 references for the mechanism (Pivato, Rodriguez et
>al., and myself) all from 2007.  Does anyone know of an earlier
>source?  Is anyone else working with this mechanism?  Have there been
>discussions along similar lines?
>
>Please bring me up to date,
>--
>Michael Allan
>
>Toronto, 647-436-4521
>http://zelea.com/
>
>P.S.  The other discussion thread (a broader topic) is:
>
>   Read any useful research lately, unanswered research questions?
>   http://groups.dowire.org/r/topic/6QthnRysw5lJmRGqnPAy5y
>
>----
>Election-Methods mailing list - see http://electorama.com/em for list info




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