[pp.int.general] Agora Voting System for a Liquid Democracy at FOSDEM

[Boris Turovskiy]

Hi Eduardo,

> Well the idea is that the elected members of parliament act as a proxy
> for the people voting via Internet.
Well that idea is exactly the opposite of what any parliamentary system
is designed to do. For example, §138 of the German Grundgesetz
(Constitution) specifically states that "a member of Parliament is bound
only by his conscience" - I'm sure there are similar rulings in most
democratic states. It implies that neither the party leadership nor
anyone else is entitled to order a MP how to vote. Of course, if a MP
votes against what his voters want he probably won't get re-elected.
Moreover, while Liquid Democracy challenges some postulates of
representative (parliamentary) democracy, even in a LD system a
"delegate" exercises his vote by free will (it's just the the process of
delegation is more fluid and not limited to a ballot once every 4 years,
and that every participant may choose not to delegate at all but to vote
directly).
What you describe is basically direct democracy with a technical proxy.

Best regards,
Boris