Looking Backward from the Tricentennial

Chapter Twenty (part 2)

The four adults milled around the kitchen island, and conversation quickly drifted toward the people's legislative assembly—Julian was impressed all three were delegates—and the voting he'd observed yesterday. "It's been twenty-four hours," he said. "They've counted up how many delegates voted for and against all the proposals and posted the results, right?" Silence met his question. Clearly, he'd misunderstood something.

"You didn't use liquid democracy back then, did you?" Adon asked. "It's more than just counting how many people are for or against something, because each delegate represents a different number of members."

"Liquid democracy?" Julian echoed.

"When you think of democracy," Faith explained, "I'll bet you think of representative democracy. Everybody gets one vote, and whichever candidate gets the most is elected to represent everyone for a few years. It was certainly a better system than what it replaced, where citizens didn't get to vote but still had people making decisions on their behalf—taxation without representation. It also worked reasonably well in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries because, when almost everyone worked on farms, people's interests had a lot of overlap. But by the twentieth century, occupations and lifestyles were much more diverse, and one of the problems with representative democracy is that anyone who didn't vote for the winner often didn't have their views represented in the legislature.

"Liquid democracy is a twenty-first-century solution. Every member of the American Union gets to decide exactly who wields decision-making authority on their behalf; they get one vote to assign to delegates in the legislative assembly, and their proxy can be divided into hundredths."

Adon saw his confused expression. "Julian might appreciate some visual aids," he said to Faith. Explaining that dinner needed another half-hour, he suggested the others regroup in the living room while he finished cooking.

Faith settled in on the couch next to her son and whispered a request to him. As she used a digital tablet to log into the American Union's website, Alvin retrieved a device about the size of a loaf of bread from the closet. From the floor, it projected her screen into the air. The holographic display in the Nussbaums' parlor had automatically adjusted to give everyone in the room the best view, but Alvin swiveled the device to accomplish the same result before returning to the couch.

Projected in front of them was a complex pie chart, dominated by one large section and many small pieces. "This shows how I've assigned my vote," Faith explained. "I've kept 62% of it, 9% is designated for Adon, and these 4% blocks each go to Idabee and three other delegates I know. Then there's thirteen 1% pieces; ten go to other delegates in our district, and the rest to some national delegates."

Julian absorbed the graphic's details as Idabee, who once again was sitting close on his left, gave him a supportive smile. "Why do you give 1% to so many people?" he asked.

"A couple reasons," Faith said. "I delegated 1% of my voting power to ten of the most popular delegates in our district—that includes the seven seated delegates—so they'll listen to me as a constituent on important issues. Another 1% went to three of the candidates for Chief Moderator, because the delegate who holds proxies from the most members becomes the presiding officer for the assembly." Faith navigated to another page. "Let's take a look at how my vote turned out in yesterday's session."

"Everything's recorded on a blockchain for transparency," Idabee added.

Rows began to scroll upward on the display, each with a segmented bar containing four colors—mostly green, with small portions of yellow, red, and blue—and labeled with a proposal number and short description. "For this one, 3436, relative to amateur radio service, the committee recommended it for inclusion," Faith explained, "and 88% of my vote went to support the motion, 3% abstained, 5% opposed it, and 4% was recorded as not in good standing."