Ep. 54 - David Ernst on Liquid Democracy
In this installment of the Future Grind podcast host Ryan O’Shea discusses the concept of liquid democracy, or democracy 3.0, with David Ernst. David is an entrepreneur and technologist advocating for and working to build the infrastructure to support liquid democracy, which is a combination of direct and representative democracy in which voters can choose to directly vote on legislation, or can delegate their vote on any issue to someone who they feel is more capable or qualified to make those decisions. David’s current major project is Secure Internet Voting, or SIV, which promises to offer fast, private, and verifiable internet voting. He also runs Democracy Space and hosts the Liquid Future podcast, which explores Democracy 3.0 and other visions for the future of government and society.
They discuss how liquid democracy can be implemented today with no changes to law, the value of specialization and it’s role in decision making, the failures of partisanship, the possibility of AI making political decisions, and much more. You can find David on Twitter at @dsernst.
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Show Notes
Hybrid of Direct and Representative Democracy [2:32]
The Proxy Delegation Process [7:25]
The Major Problem of Partisan Politics [11:37]
Implementing Democracy 3.0 Today [16:54]
David’s Background [19:55]
The History of Liquid Democracy, Democracy 3.0 [25:30]
Securing Reliable Online Voting [30:04]
Risk of Populism and Mob Rule [38:44]
Privacy Vs. Transparency in Democracy 3.0 [52:56]
Delegating votes to organizations, causes, or even AIs [57:11]
Gerrymandering & Replacing the Current System [1:02:14]
How to Get Involved and Support [1:09:22]
Mentioned
Athenian democracy
The DAO (Ethereum)
Jordan Hall, “We can restore Democracy by disrupting politics. Here’s how.”
Partido de la Red (Net Party, Argentina)
Santiago Siri, Democracy Earth
Pirate Party
Copyleft
Brian Ford, “Delegative Democracy”
Lewis Carroll’s The Principles of Parliamentary Representation
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
James Madison, Federalist 58
Dunbar’s number
Low-information rationality / Low-information voter
Sierra Club
National Rifle Association
Futarchy
Ranked voting
STAR voting
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