dsernst
commented
7 years ago This is pretty disorganized.
There are cool points in here... but in the end it really diverges from the question "What about people without smartphones?".
Anyway, this isn't really a concern anyone has brought up in a while. And becomes moot once there's a web app.
Going to close for now. Maybe recycle some of this later.
If Liquid Democracy is run through an app, what about all the people without these newfangled gadgets. The Pew Research Center estimated in 2015 that only 64% of Americans owned a smartphone. And we don't want to disadvantage the other 36% of people.
The sad fact is they may not be getting all that much representation right now. They're rarely given the chance to vote directly. And their legislators are insanely busy. The elected legislator's time is divided among meeting with advisors to understand policy, working in their legislative chambers to deliberate & vote, the constant demands of campaigning so they can stay in office, and only then trying to honor their desires to connect with constituents. And they still need down time, and hopefully they find some chances to be with their families. So with 535 legislators for over 300 million Americans, how well can today's elected legislators really represent their constituents?
In a Liquid Democracy, the under-represented can have dedicated champions to vote for them. Since the system isn't winner-take-all, and invites much wider participation, there can be much greater range of representatives to pick from. The citizen without technology would just need to come into an office one time to register and get set up on the network, and right there they could assign their vote to their new personal representative, dedicated just to their interests.
Even more than that, a sophisticated Liquid Democracy could help you find a better representative. Based on examples from when you have directly voted, calculations could automatically be run to help you find a delegate who more closely matches your politics. You might think your local politician is your best option, but the Liquid Democracy software could help you find a new delegate who actually votes the same way as you 50% more often. And the longer you use the system, the better these recommendations can become. In the end, you can sit back and feel better knowing you're being represented well, and not worry about needing to log in as often.