My simple idea for how to move forward with the project of democracy.

[Brett Williams]

Generally, people who would like us to move from our present system of
representative democracy into exploring deeper and more direct systems
of popular self-rule believe that doing so would require immediate
fundamental changes to the structure of democracy and society. I am
proposing a simple idea which I believe could serve as a gentle bridge
from representative democracy to direct popular control. If it is the
will of the people, it can easily be implemented incrementally through
the existing system.

Candidates would run for existing public offices, but instead of
describing their own views or making pledges as to what votes they
would take, they would pledge only to act as neutral intermediaries.
The people themselves would decide (through some predetermined system,
such as direct democracy or consensus), how the representative should
vote for them in each circumstance, and the representative would be
obligated (by their commitment, and hopefully in time by law) to cast
exactly that vote.

Obviously there are various systems by which the people could decide
what votes their representatives will take. There are various
possible forms of direct democracy, such as forms that require a
simple majority or supermajority, forms with delegable proxies, etc.
There are also many other systems that could be tried, such as
consensus, juries determined by lottery, instantly recallable
representatives, etc. Each metademocratic candidate would pledge to
implement some particular system. Hopefully in time there will even
be multiple metademocratic candidates seeking the same office, each
representing a different system, giving the people of that district a
choice as to how they wish to make their choices.

We can start small. We can run for school board and city council,
county board of supervisors and state representative. We will learn
every step of the way, finding effective systems that engage more and
more of the people in deeper and deeper ways. Soon we will be ready
for larger offices, and eventually we will have accumulated enough
power and wisdom that we can collectively decide to change the
fundamental structure of society and fully empower ourselves.

I am asking the people of the world to please join with me in bringing
popular self-rule to a deeper level than choosing who will make our
decisions for us. I believe that we can finally choose to make our
own choices. All power to the people.

<3,
mungojelly