The Road Back to the People’s House

The U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C., 1846
The “People’s House” is a colloquial term used to describe the institution of the United States of Representatives. The term comes from the populist characteristics of the House: smaller representative districts, shorter terms of office for its members and, perhaps most importantly, direct election by the people. The House of Representatives was the only branch of the Federal government to be directly elected by the people until ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1913, when the Senate was made a directly elected body. The United States Capitol building, where the House of Representatives meets, is sometimes referred to as the “People’s House”.

This road in prior centuries was traveled using our feet. But in the 21st Century, this road might be done with our fingers.

Forms of Representative and Direct Democracy

Most countries that are representative democracies allow for three forms of political action that provide limited direct democracy: Referendum, Initiative, and Recall. Referendums can include the ability to hold a binding vote on whether a given law should be rejected. This effectively grants the populace which holds suffrage, a veto on a law adopted by the elected legislature. One nation to use this system is Switzerland. Initiatives, usually put forward by members of the general public, compel the consideration of laws (usually in a subsequent referendum) without the consent of the elected representatives, or even against their expressed opposition. Recalls give public the power to remove elected officials from office before the end of their term.

Electronic Direct Democracy (EDD), also known as Direct Digital Democracy (DDD), is a form of direct democracy which utilizes telecommunications to facilitate public participation. Electronic direct democracy is sometimes referred to by other names, such as open source governance and collaborative governance.

EDD requires electronic voting or some way to register votes on issues electronically. As in any direct democracy, in an EDD, citizens would have the right to vote on legislation, author new legislation, and recall representatives.

Technology for supporting EDD has been researched and developed at the Florida Institute of Technology, where the technology is used with student organizations. Numerous other software development projects are underway. Several of these projects are now collaborating on a cross-platform architecture, under the umbrella of the Meta-Government project.

Switzerland, already partially governed by direct democracy, is making progress towards such a system. Senator Online, an Australian political party who ran for the Senate in the 2007 federal elections, proposed to institute an EDD system so that Australians can decide which way the senator’s vote on each and every bill. A similar initiative was formed 2002 in Sweden where the party Aktivdemokrati, running for the Swedish parliament, offers its members the power to decide the actions of the party over all or some areas of decision, or alternatively to use a proxy with immediate recall for one or several areas. Since early 2011 EDD parties are working together on the Participedia wiki E2D.

The first mainstream direct democracy party to be registered with any country's electoral commission is the UK's People's Administration Direct Democracy party. The People's Administration have developed and published the complete architecture for a legitimate reform to EDD [including the required Parliamentary reform process]. Established by musicians and political activists, the People's Administration advocates using the web and telephone to enable the majority electorate to create, propose and vote upon all policy implementation.

The People's Administration's blueprint has been published in various forms since 1998 and the People's Administration is the first direct democracy party registered in a vote-able format anywhere in the world – making transition possible through evolution via election with legitimate majority support, instead of potentially through revolution via violence.

The Pirate Party

The Pirate Party of Germany is a political party founded in September 2006. It states general agreement with the Swedish Piratpartiet as a party of the information society. It is part of the international movement of pirate parties and is also a member of the Pirate Parties International. Since 2011 the party has succeeded in attaining a high enough vote share to enter four state parliaments in Germany, (Berlin, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saarland and Schleswig-Holstein).

The party sees itself as part of an international movement to shape with their term of "digital revolution" which is a circumscription for the transition into a information society. With their focus on freedom in the net and their fight against government regulations of this sphere, they caught the attention especially of the younger generation. Even if the network policy is the core identity of the party, it is now more than just an advocacy party of "digital natives" and characterizes itself as a social-liberal-progressive. The party sees itself as a party of fundamental rights which among other things wants to advocate for political transparency.

The U.S. is not ready for any of these full implementations. But combining features of them may give all registered voters a voice in the decisions that affect them locally, in their state, and their country.

As an example of Direct Digital Democracy in 2013, we look at the March for Innovation. There is a plan for a virtual march on Washington this spring to push for smart immigration reform to attract and keep the best, the brightest and the hardest-working to fuel innovation and American jobs.

America's innovators, the leaders of technology and innovation companies from Silicon Valley start-ups to companies across America, are working with the Partnership for a New American Economy to lead a movement among all Americans to pass sensible immigration reform.

What's the Virtual March? Bringing together a movement of grassroots supporters with the leaders of hundreds of technology companies, they are organizing one of the largest-ever virtual marches on Washington. The idea is simple: concentrating their collective voices on one day later this spring, they will bring attention to innovation-focused immigration reform and generate a surge of contacts to Congress -- on Twitter, Facebook, on the phone, and in meetings in Washington. And we'll keep engaging this movement after the March to keep the pressure on.

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NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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