Democracy 2.0: Of, By & For The People ...

In the late 1700's, the architects of our western democracies had to confront big structural challenges when setting up their legislative systems:

• How could they get everyone to participate where nations were so vast and the fastest way of communication was carrier pigeons or horse riding messengers?

• How could they possibly gather large groups of people in one place, all at the same time and manage to collect everyone's opinions and votes without chaos?

Back in the days of the US Independence War and the French Revolution, democracy at its full potential was perceived unachievable due to technological inadequacies. Therefore, the architects of our democracies compromised: The People would elect representatives for large areas and rely on them to gather in one place at the same time to vote on behalf of their electorate.

Over 200 years later, we are still using the same legislative system. Yet technology has evolved to a point where the initial structural challenges can be easily overcome in a much more democratic way. With personal computers connected to the Internet in most people's homes, we no longer need to elect representatives to vote on our behalf. For the first time in history, we can represent ourselves.

The time has come to change our legislative system into its true democratic version.

Time to upgrade Democracy now!

Our current legal system is in the hands of a few hundred men and women whom we elect as our representatives. When we elect them, we effectively transfer our voting powers to them. These few hundred gather and decide which laws are passed, effectively affecting the lives of everyone.

Yet in most circumstances the votes of such a small amount of people can not be statistically representative of the opinions of hundreds of millions. Especially when personal incentives may taint the decision making process of our representatives. How can we truly be sure that their choices are motivated by altruism rather than personal gain? After all, elected representatives are only human...

When we elect our representatives, we also transfer our powers to introduce new laws effectively removing our ability to suggest solutions to problems faced by the nation. In most democracies today, people do not have the right to call for a national popular referendum by producing a petition signed by a sufficient number of registered voters. In the United States, the constitution does not provide for popular referendum at the federal level. In Britain, France, Spain, Germany,Greece and most other European countries, national popular referendum cannot be called for by the people. Switzerland, on the other hand, does provide such right to its citizen and is one of the most economically stable countries in the World.

Now, imagine an online platform empowering all the people of a nation to suggest, debate and vote on the laws that govern their lives. An open source system created by the people for the people. A freely available secure software based on the principles of transparency, collaboration and participation. An online legislative platform created and improved with the input of all those wishing to live in a true democracy.

In this digital age, We the People, have the collective skills, knowledge and wisdom to design, build and implement such a system. We also have access to the sum of our collective social networks effectively enabling us to propagate ideas faster than ever before. And for those of us already living in democratic countries, some of us already have the right to peacefully bring about a referendum to allow us to upgrade our democracy. At the least we have the right to petition to gain the right to call national popular referendum.