The Democrat Becomes World's first Collaborative Direct Democracy Referenda Site
07 May 2009On May 7th 2009, at the click of a mouse, the World changed forever. The Democrat had arrived. Welcome to the first publication written almost entirely by direct democracy, and the World's first true mass participation direct democracy system.
Our software allows you, the British people to have referenda on all the issues affecting you. You can schedule documents, draft paragraphs, and have those paragraphs put to the vote either in competition with, or in addition to, existing paragraphs.This allows the ordinary people to have their say and collaborate in ways formerly reserved to legislators by writing what we call "position papers".
Step 1: Register and/or Login
First of all you need to register a free account (click here). If the registration process is successful, check the email address you entered at registration- including the spam folder. You should find an email within 24 hours, containing your activation code. Click on the link and now your account should activate. Then login with the user name and password you registered. Now when you click on the write tab - you should see a list of current documents.
Step 2: Schedule a Document
A document is scheduled by setting out the topic of the Referendum. Please do this in a value neutral way and as specifically as possible.
e.g. "Britain's Membership of the EU" not "Should we pull out from EU Gravy Train?" or "The EU" (in the latter case the topic is too broad to address and could relate to reform, or any policy area covered by the EU)..
The 7 day clock then starts. The first 5 days are spent drafting, the last 2 days are spent voting.
Step 3: Draft the paragraphs
During the drafting process, you can either add a new paragraph, propose an alternative to someone elses, or amend an existing paragraph that you have written. Please do not copy other's work. Additional paragraphs are numbered incrementally and have thick black lines dividing them from their predecessor. Substitute paragraphs have the same number, but different authors and have only thin black lines dividing them.
Step 4: Voting
After drafting, we enter the approval phase. Rank the choices for each paragraph according to preference with your favourite being listed as "1", your second favourite "2" and so on. If you like you can rank choices equally to show no preference. Every paragraph has a "none of the above" option which behaves the same way as all other choices except that it returns no paragraph if elected. If less than three paragraphs are approved, the document as a whole is rejected.
Step 5: Viewing the Results
You can view the results of the vote by clicking on the link in the "write" section or the link in the article (if approved) which says "view results". The results are presented as tables which show the outcome of every contest between the options.
The winner under our system is the one who wins the most contests and is therefore the most preferred candidate. Our voting system is modeled on the Copeland Condorcet method. In each contest, you can see the total number of votes preferring option A (The Runner) to option B (The Opponent). Read the table from up to down. If more people prefer the runner (blue) to the opponent (red) the runner wins the contest and gains a point- the square is coloured blue. If the opponent is more preferred the runner loses a point and the square turns red. If there is a draw the square will be white.
Coming Soon: Upgrade your account to Professional
We are currently adding professional features that will allow you to see more detailed data by nation, region, age and gender. Please read the terms and conditions of service (link at the bottom of this page). If you have any problems, bug reports or questions please email admin@diffusionware.com .
1 authors proposed articles for this document. The ones displayed were approved by the majority of voters, with 1 voters taking part. The views expressed in the document do not necessarily reflect the view of Diffusionware Limited, it's directors, agents or employees.
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