Digital Democracy

Digital Democracy

True democracy would have citizens voting on all legislative action. There would be no representative government because the citizens would represent themselves.

Representative government was created in a bygone era when citizens were far apart in space and time. Distances have shrunk in the modern world so that anyplace on the earth is but a day away for physical travel (20 minutes for a ballistic missile), and a few milliseconds away for information travel via the internet. Since the circumstances that gave rise to representative government have changed perhaps it is time to move to a true democracy?

Public Key Cryptography (PKC) and the Internet provide a reliable and secure method for voting. PKC provides both the necessary authentication and authorization service the true democratic plebiscite. Voters would be required to get a public key installed on a key server and to vote as they feel fit. Congress responsibility would be relegated to preparing legislation and funding requirements and then submission to the plebiscite on a periodic basis. Legislation and funding approval would be at the discretion of the majority.

Taxpayers above the voting age would then constrain state behavior as befits a true democracy with their frequent votes on all the issues. Society at large would benefit from the owners of capital dispensing it as the majority sees fit instead of how the “elected” representatives deem. This would be a great gift to mankind, and would lead the way to proper democratization of the world.