Liquid Future

John Montfort Dunn (born 9 September 1940) is emeritus Professor of Political Theory at King's College, Cambridge, and Visiting Professor in the Graduate School of Social Sciences and Humanities at Chiba University, Japan.

Dunn's work focuses on applying a historical perspective to modern political theory. His early reputation was based upon the careful reconstruction of the political thought of John Locke: this benefited from Peter Laslett's critical edition of Locke's Two Treatises of Government. Together with his contemporary, the historian Quentin Skinner, and their mentor/colleague J. G. A. Pocock, he offered methodological prescriptions in the late 1960s which aimed at correcting the historical insensitivity of political science by reconstructing what past political thinkers intended to do in writing. Much of his subsequent work – reflective essays, edited collections, and several books – has tackled substantive issues in political theory, although his historical sense continues to inform a certain skepticism about the degree to which politics is ultimately amenable to reason. He is the author of The Cunning of Unreason (2001), a work that discusses how the limits of human knowledge and rationality prevent democratic republicanism from achieving all that it promises. His reflections upon the vicissitudes of democracy as a political ideal have continued with Setting the People Free: the Story of Democracy (2005).

Between the Trump administration and global rise of populism, the domination of money in politics and steady replacement of thoughtful exchange by partisan maneuvering … it's easy to feel gloomy about the state of Democracy. And yet, lost in the headlines and trending topics is a growing movement of activists, technology solutions and imaginative thinking that are re-conceiving the very nature of Democracy. On May 29th at Manny's, join us for a discussion of how digital democracy is rewriting the future of Democracy and how human-first structural reform may be a lot closer than you ever imagined. Panelists include: David Ernst: CEO of Liquid.US Agatha Bacelar: Candidate for US Congress in CA-12 David Evan Harris: Mixed Media Sociologist & Chancellor's Public Scholar, UC Berkeley Joshua Krafchin: Co-founder of Swing Left & Democracy Hacker Hosted by Manny's, a civic gathering space in San Francisco. Thanks to OHD for letting us use his track, "Priorities".

This video gives supporters of Liquid US an overall understanding of what the organization has been up to recently, and where we plan to head next in order to promote our liquid democratic vision in America.

https://www.agathaforcongress.com/

"I am a 27-year-old Brazilian-American immigrant and San Francisco resident running for U.S. Congress in California District 12. San Francisco has some of the youngest, most diverse, and technologically advanced residents of any district in the U.S. The technology dreamt up here ripples out to the entire world, and will continue to do so as another four billion people connect online in the next decade. AI, automation, and social media will continue to impact every aspect of our lives. We urgently need representatives with a sophisticated understanding of human-centered technology, and yet, only ten percent of our representatives in Congress today have a science or technology background. As a graduate of the product design engineering program at Stanford University, I'm running for Congress to change this.

If there is one word to describe my campaign, that word would be proximity.

As an immigrant raised by a single mom and the public education system, I have always been proximate to Dreamers, who I knew as neighbors, friends and schoolmates. Half of my family is from Brazil, home to the Amazon Rainforest, "the lungs of the world." I feel a deeply personal connection to the urgency of the climate crisis. And Brazil's fraught history of democracy is a warning on the importance of protecting and strengthening our democratic institutions.

My work as a documentary storyteller has taken me around the country and the world, and I've had the privilege of getting proximate to the stories of communities underserved by our democracy: indigenous peoples, the incarcerated and paroled, asylum seekers and the undocumented. After seeing up close the human impact of policies in place today, running for Congress has become a moral imperative.

I am a millennial which means I'm part of a generation set to inherit many crises: catastrophic climate change, perpetual war, record levels of inequality, school shootings, student debt, and public trust in government. Although millennials form the largest voting block in CA-12, it is a group with historically low voter turnout. This is not a sign of apathy so much as a recognition that the voices of ordinary citizens are being drowned out in the wash of dark and corporate money. I'm running for Congress to get big money out of politics; our grassroots campaign will not take corporate PAC money.

With family here in the city and as a resident of the Mission District, I am proximate daily to the two faces of San Francisco–the great civic shame of homelessness in the midst of enormous wealth. This long standing problem spotlights a political status quo that is not serving all citizens. For a democracy that serves the 100%, we're going to need new design thinking, and representatives who will listen to the people over the apparatus of power.

Our city, our world is in deep need of change. That change is attainable, but we're running out of time. Be a part of the democratic awakening and proud tradition of San Francisco's history of revolutionary change. Let's reclaim the legacy of protest against the status quo, continue the legacy of technological innovation and environmental activism, and create a new legacy of getting big money out of politics and expanding democratic participation to include everyone.

Let's design a better future for a better quality of life for everyone in this diverse city!"

-Agatha Bacelar

The problem of deepfakes is one that has been discussed quite frequently in politics and news media lately. There is a growing concern that deepfakes can be used to decieve people into thinking that a well-known figure said something they didn't. How might a liquid democracy help ameliorate the negative effects of deepfakes in politics, by shifting the focus of political discussions from people to ideas?

Brett Hennig co-founded and directors the Sortition Foundation, which campaigns to institute the use of stratified, random selection (also called sortition) in government.

Before co-founding the Sortition Foundation, Brett wore a variety of hats: as a taxi driver, a software engineer, a social justice activist, a mathematics tutor, and the primary carer of four boys. He finished his PhD in astrophysics just before his first son arrived.

After spending several disheartening years in civil society organisations and politics, Hennig became inspired by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri's trilogy on political philosophy and began investigating and researching network forms of democracy. The resulting book, The End of Politicians: Time for a Real Democracy, has been called "a book for visionaries" by New Internationalist contributing editor James Kelsey-Fry and was described as "a powerful critique and provocative alternative" by the late Professor Erik Olin Wright.

Hennig has given many talks promoting sortition and has contributed a chapter, "Who needs elections? Accountability, Equality, and Legitimacy under Sortition" to the book Legislature by Lot: Transformative Designs for Deliberative Governance (Verso, 2019).

David Ernst & Cy Ray are building Liquid Democracy which is a 21st century rethinking of Democratic Representation.

Jon Barnes is a thinker and tinkerer, exploring alternatives to complex topics like education, work, democracy both in theory and through experimenting in my personal life.

Learn more about his podcasts, talks and books via his website:

http://jonbarnes.me/

On November 8, 2016, the night Donald Trump was elected President of The United States, John published his first book: "Democracy Squared", proposing ways to create a deeper and more distributed form of democracy supported by technology. Since publishing Democracy Squared Jon has spoken at TEDx, traveled Europe to share this vision, and worked on the board of world leading blockchain enabled direct democracy movements.

Learn more about liquid democracy and David Ernst's work at https://liquid.us

A lengthy explanation detailing our security and privacy practices, including an explanation of our proof of vote system.

Our current system: Currently elected county offices are filled using a "top two jungle primary" system involving a primary election in the spring and a general election in November. The election is non-partisan and no party labels show up on the ballot, so Democrats might be running against Democrats and Republicans running against Republicans.

If a candidate gets a majority in the primary (50%+1 of the votes), that is the only candidate who appears on the November ballot -- even though many more voters show up for the November election. If no candidate gets a majority in the primary, the two candidates with the most votes go to the November ballot -- even though each of them got only a minority of the total vote in the primary.

In the November election voters are given the choice of only the one or two candidates who made it through the spring primary.

How STAR Voting would work: STAR stands for "Score Then Automatic Runoff," and also refers to the fact that voters can score any or all candidates on a scale of 0 to 5 (0 for no support and 5 for the most support) similar to giving 5 star ratings to a movie or restaurant.

With STAR Voting there is no need for a primary election, so voters would vote only once, in November. This makes for a shorter campaign season focused on the summer and fall when people are paying more attention. It also makes it easier for candidates who don't have big donors to run a viable campaign.

The ballot would still be nonpartisan, but instead of being limited to picking just one candidate, you can give a score to any or all candidates -- even giving the same score to two or more candidates you prefer equally. (Giving no score is counted as a zero.)

When the ballots are counted two things determine the winner. First the scores for each candidate are added up across all of the ballots, and the two candidates with the highest total scores become "finalists." This shows they have relatively high and broad support from the voters. Second, the same ballots are used to determine which of those two finalist candidates was preferred by the most voters -- a simple majority vote with each ballot counting for one vote, with your vote going to the finalist you gave a higher score to.

Summary of main benefits: No primary election, making it easier on candidates and more convenient for voters More expressive voting: voters can express their level of support for any or all candidates Fair to all candidates, with money being less of a factor Produces a winner with broad support

Learn more about liquid democracy and David Ernst's work at https://liquid.us