DDDemocracy

Meaning and Context

DDD is an acronym for "Democracy by Digital Delegation", which could also be called "Democracy by Continuous Digital Delegation", or simply "Democracy 2.0".

As the name implies, this is a proposal for the development of the democratic model.

This democratic improvement is digital, in the sense that IT and telecommunications play an important and innovative role.

It operates primarily through a delegation system that differs from the current electoral systems.

And this delegation is continuous, continually updated, while current systems are typically cyclical.

The DDD model comes from a larger study, the "M3M model". The M3M model combines a critical review of the current models (collectivist model, competitive model, democracy, particracy, work, business) with a new model and a societal project. The text describing the M3M model is organized in three parts. The first part is the criticism of obsolete models of society. The second part is a deliberate choice of simple values ​​on which should be built a better and new model, intended to be translated into a kind of specifications. The third part describes the components chosen to implement the previously established specifications. It is from this third part that the essential part of the present document is extracted.

The original French version (DDD - "Démocratie par Délégation Digitale) is available here.

Weaknesses of Western Democracies

In Europe, in America and throughout the world, the democratic model is sick: voters feel misunderstood, they no longer worry about exercising the right to vote, though hard won by their predecessors. The political class and the elected officials arouse, immediately invested with power, the distrust and suspicion of those who have chosen them. Whether or not these suspicions are justified, voters no longer feel validly represented in the numerous and complex institutions engendered by the increasingly tortuous and contradictory machinery of democratic structures.

The old democratic principle, namely the dignified and balanced representation of the elector, has been lost somewhere in the successive improvements of history. It is time to take a critical look at it, and to build something else, keeping the vital force of the democratic principle, but incorporating new structures and means suitable for the biotope of contemporary man.

Many authors and journalists have highlighted the limits and weaknesses of the democratic machinery. Here are reported, without orginality, the most significant ones, which will serve as contrasting base to the DDD proposals.

Strange success criteria for elected persons

Electoral campaigns involve candidates whose aim is to obtain a maximum number of votes. As a consequence, the elegance, the presence, the sense of distribution and the effectiveness of the media weigh more than the ambition or the clarity of the programs presented. These come down to well-chosen slogans, often developed by communication consultants whose performances will be paid not according to the quality of the program and the themes presented, but according to the votes obtained. As for the candidates themselves, the criteria of success mentioned - such as personality, media efficiency and others - will push forward and favor sympathetic and popular personalities, entertainment and communication people, such as journalists, actors, Charismatic affairs. These profiles can not be systematically denied human qualities, ideals and management qualities. However, given the challenges faced by elected officials, it is clear that these profiles are not a priori the best equipped to deal with these problems, compared to various specialists in the technical, political or scientific spheres. Alas, the latter rarely put their priorities in the techniques of electoral communications, or have no inclination for these exercises.

Democratic cycles are sources of dysfunction

In all democracies the same depressing cycles are observed in their naive repetition.

In electoral periods - mandates expiring and renewing - elected representatives in place are like their competitors eager to take their place. It is the period of promises in every direction, of the glorious results of those who have exercised power, of the deplorable results of those who wish that those who have exercised it will no longer exercise it and give way to it. During this election period, candidates are enthusiastically depicted by their troops, with disdain by their competitors, and objectivity gives way completely to the media circus. One of the consequences of these exercises is that the elected officials in this period no longer care to manage but to present an optimal balance sheet enhanced with promises brought to the tune of the day.

Then, during the exercise of the mandate, the elected member is gradually obliged to retreat in the face of the too optimistic promises that he has to advance in order to obtain the votes. Inevitably, or at least in the vast majority of cases, the popularity of an elected official is gradually weaker than he had at the time of his campaign. And in fact the management of the problems is biased and unhealthy, since the distortions between promises and constraints of ground imply a management in delicate equilibrium. It is during the term of office that elected officials can draw more or less legitimate, and never announced, benefits from their power. It is the period of elevator referrals, the inventory of debits and credits, and the search for the best returns on electoral investment. If he is undeniably integrity and devoted - but how did they get there? - it should also be noted that others who are less scrupulous know how to take advantage of the money invested in election campaigns. The former want and can deal with problems in the interest of the citizen, but the latter want and can deal with the same problems without forgetting the interest of their party, their friends and themselves.

Moreover, democratic cycles often have as a corollary the alternation of men and parties in power. Most often the end of a mandate and the beginning of the next one involve the pausing of the programs slowly put in place by the predecessors, and the gradual taking of information from the successors. This results in long periods of floating and management failure, either because programs can no longer be completed, or because they are not yet solidly supported by information or not fully constructed. In both cases, the possible management qualities of the predecessors and successors do not weigh heavily against the implacable logic of democratic cycles.

It is not in the interest of elected officials to tackle the real problems

Why should an elected representative bravely tackle the most delicate problems he is being asked to tackle?

It has been shown that if the best solution to a problem involves unpopular measures, unlikely to retain or drain votes in the future, then an elected official has every interest in not treating it. It is better for him to take temporary, popular and, preferably, mediate measures, rather than addressing a problem at the source. Postulating hard decisions, conveying to others the delicate and unpopular need to treat them better is the most profitable political choice. This is a step in time: NIMTO (not in my term of office). The same logic exists for the fields of competence: NIMBY (not in my back yard). In other words, no politician wishes that a thorny problem falls within his sphere of competence.