There are a hundred more clever proposals for how to run Civilization's elections.  If the current system starts to break, one of those will perhaps be adopted.  Until that day comes, though, the structure of Governance is the simplest departure from directdemocracy that has been found to work at all.

Every voter of Civilization, everybody at least thirteen years old or who has passed some competence tests before then, primarily exerts their influence through delegating their vote to a Delegate; a Delegate must have at least fifty votes to participate in the next higher layer at all, and can retain no more than two hundred votes before the marginal added influence from each additional vote starts to diminish and grow sublinearly.  Most Delegates are not full-time unless they are representing pretty rich people, but they're expected to be people interested in politics and who spend a lot of time on that.  Your Delegate might be somebody you know personally and trust, it might be somebody who hung out their biography on the Network and seemed a lot like you in some ways, and whom you chatted with about politics in a publicly visible forum that permits you to verify that the Delegate hasn't been telling different voters different stories.

If you think you've got a problem with the way Civilization is heading, you can talk to your Delegate about that, who has time to talk back to you.  This step has been found to not actually be dispensable in practice.  It needs to be the case that, when you delegate your vote, you know who has your vote, and you can talk to that person, and they can talk back.  Otherwise people feel like they have no lever at all to pull on the vast structure that is Governance, there is nothing visible that changes when they cast their one vote.  Sure, in principle, there's a cohort whose decision moves in logical synchrony with yours, and your cohort is probably quite large unless you're a weird person, but some part of you more basic than that will feel like you're not in control.

The rest of the electoral structure follows almost automatically, once you determine that this property has to be preserved at each layer.

There are a hundred more clever proposals for how to run Civilization's elections.  If the current system starts to break, one of those will perhaps be adopted.  Until that day comes, though, the structure of Governance is the simplest departure from directdemocracy that has been found to work at all.

Every voter of Civilization, everybody at least thirteen years old or who has passed some competence tests before then, primarily exerts their influence through delegating their vote to a Delegate; a Delegate must have at least fifty votes to participate in the next higher layer at all, and can retain no more than two hundred votes before the marginal added influence from each additional vote starts to diminish and grow sublinearly.  Most Delegates are not full-time unless they are representing pretty rich people, but they're expected to be people interested in politics and who spend a lot of time on that.  Your Delegate might be somebody you know personally and trust, it might be somebody who hung out their biography on the Network and seemed a lot like you in some ways, and whom you chatted with about politics in a publicly visible forum that permits you to verify that the Delegate hasn't been telling different voters different stories.

If you think you've got a problem with the way Civilization is heading, you can talk to your Delegate about that, who has time to talk back to you.  This step has been found to not actually be dispensable in practice.  It needs to be the case that, when you delegate your vote, you know who has your vote, and you can talk to that person, and they can talk back.  Otherwise people feel like they have no lever at all to pull on the vast structure that is Governance, there is nothing visible that changes when they cast their one vote.  Sure, in principle, there's a cohort whose decision moves in logical synchrony with yours, and your cohort is probably quite large unless you're a weird person, but some part of you more basic than that will feel like you're not in control.

The rest of the electoral structure follows almost automatically, once you decide that this property has to be preserved at each layer.

There are a hundred more clever proposals for how to run Civilization's elections.  If the current system starts to break, one of those will perhaps be adopted.  Until that day comes, though, the structure of Governance is the simplest departure from directdemocracy that has been found to work at all.

Every voter of Civilization, everybody at least thirteen years old or who has passed some competence tests before then, primarily exerts their influence through delegating their vote to a Delegate; a Delegate must have at least fifty votes to participate in the next higher layer at all, and can retain no more than two hundred votes before the marginal added influence from each additional vote starts to diminish and grow sublinearly.  Most Delegates are not full-time unless they are representing pretty rich people, but they're expected to be people interested in politics and who spend a lot of time on that.  Your Delegate might be somebody you know personally and trust, it might be somebody who hung out their biography on the Network and seemed a lot like you in some ways, and whom you chatted with about politics in a publicly visible forum that permits you to verify that the Delegate hasn't been telling different voters different stories.

If you think you've got a problem with the way Civilization is heading, you can talk to your Delegate about that, who has time to talk back to you.  This step has been found to not actually be dispensable in practice.  It needs to be the case that, when you delegate your vote, you know who has your vote, and you can talk to that person, and they can talk back.  Otherwise people feel like they have no lever at all to pull on the vast structure that is Governance, there is nothing visible that changes when a voter casts their one vote.  Sure, in principle, there's a cohort whose decision moves in logical synchrony with yours, and your cohort is probably quite large unless you're a weird person, but some part of you more basic than that will feel like you're not in control.

The rest of the electoral structure follows almost automatically, once you decide that this property has to be preserved at each layer.

There are a hundred more clever proposals for how to run Civilization's elections.  If the current system starts to break, one of those will perhaps be adopted.  Until that day comes, though, the structure of Governance is the simplest departure from directdemocracy that has been found to work at all.

Every voter of Civilization, everybody at least thirteen years old or who has passed some competence tests before then, primarily exerts their influence through delegating their vote to a Delegate; a Delegate must have at least fifty votes to participate in the next higher layer at all, and can retain no more than two hundred votes before the marginal added influence from each additional vote starts to diminish and grow sublinearly.  Most Delegates are not full-time unless they are representing pretty rich people, but they're expected to be people interested in politics and who spend a lot of time on that.  Your Delegate might be somebody you know personally and trust, if you're the sort to know so many people personally that you know one Delegate.  It might be somebody who hung out their biography on the Network, and seemed a lot like you in some ways, and whom you chatted with about politics in a forum visible to the Delegates' other voters so all their voters could verify that their Delegate hasn't been telling different people different stories.

If you think you've got a problem with the way Civilization is heading, you can talk to your Delegate about that, who has time to talk back to you.  This feature has been found to not actually be dispensable in practice.  It needs to be the case that, when you delegate your vote, you know who has your vote, and you can talk to that person, and they can talk back.  Otherwise people feel like they have no lever at all to pull on the vast structure that is Governance, that here is nothing visible that changes when a voter casts their one vote.  Sure, in principle, there's a cohort whose decision moves in logical synchrony with yours, and your cohort is probably quite large unless you're a weird person.  But some part of you more basic than that will feel like you're not in control, if the only lever you have is an election that almost never comes down to the votes of yourself and your friends.

The rest of the electoral structure follows almost automatically, once you decide that this property has to be preserved at each layer.

There are a hundred more clever proposals for how to run Civilization's elections.  If the current system starts to break, one of those will perhaps be adopted.  Until that day comes, though, the structure of Governance is the simplest departure from directdemocracy that has been found to work at all.

Every voter of Civilization, everybody at least thirteen years old or who has passed some competence tests before then, primarily exerts their influence through delegating their vote to a Delegate; a Delegate must have at least fifty votes to participate in the next higher layer at all, and can retain no more than two hundred votes before the marginal added influence from each additional vote starts to diminish and grow sublinearly.  Most Delegates are not full-time unless they are representing pretty rich people, but they're expected to be people interested in politics and who spend a lot of time on that.  Your Delegate might be somebody you know personally and trust, if you're the sort to know so many people personally that you know one Delegate.  It might be somebody who hung out their biography on the Network, and seemed a lot like you in some ways, and whom you chatted with about politics in a forum visible to the Delegates' other voters so all their voters could verify that their Delegate hasn't been telling different people different stories.

If you think you've got a problem with the way Civilization is heading, you can talk to your Delegate about that, and your Delegate has time to talk back to you.  This feature has been found to not actually be dispensable in practice.  It needs to be the case that, when you delegate your vote, you know who has your vote, and you can talk to that person, and they can talk back.  Otherwise people feel like they have no lever at all to pull on the vast structure that is Governance, that here is nothing visible that changes when a voter casts their one vote.  Sure, in principle, there's a cohort whose decision moves in logical synchrony with yours, and your cohort is probably quite large unless you're a weird person.  But some part of you more basic than that will feel like you're not in control, if the only lever you have is an election that almost never comes down to the votes of yourself and your friends.

The rest of the electoral structure follows almost automatically, once you decide that this property has to be preserved at each layer.

There are a hundred more clever proposals for how to run Civilization's elections.  If the current system starts to break, one of those will perhaps be adopted.  Until that day comes, though, the structure of Governance is the simplest departure from directdemocracy that has been found to work at all.

Every voter of Civilization, everybody at least thirteen years old or who has passed some competence tests before then, primarily exerts their influence through delegating their vote to a Delegate; a Delegate must have at least fifty votes to participate in the next higher layer at all, and can retain no more than two hundred votes before the marginal added influence from each additional vote starts to diminish and grow sublinearly.  Most Delegates are not full-time unless they are representing pretty rich people, but they're expected to be people interested in politics and who spend a lot of time on that.  Your Delegate might be somebody you know personally and trust, if you're the sort to know so many people personally that you know one Delegate.  It might be somebody who hung out their biography on the Network, and seemed a lot like you in some ways, and whom you chatted with about politics in a forum visible to the Delegates' other voters so all their voters could verify that their Delegate hasn't been telling different people different stories.

If you think you've got a problem with the way Civilization is heading, you can talk to your Delegate about that, and your Delegate has time to talk back to you.  This feature has been found to not actually be dispensable in practice.  It needs to be the case that, when you delegate your vote, you know who has your vote, and you can talk to that person, and they can talk back.  Otherwise people feel like they have no lever at all to pull on the vast structure that is Governance, that here is nothing visible that changes when a voter casts their one vote.  Sure, in principle, there's a decision-cohort whose votes move in logical synchrony with yours, and your cohort is probably quite large unless you're a weird person.  But some part of you more basic than that will feel like you're not in control, if the only lever you have is an election that almost never comes down to the votes of yourself and your friends.

The rest of the electoral structure follows almost automatically, once you decide that this property has to be preserved at each layer.

There are a hundred more clever proposals for how to run Civilization's elections.  If the current system starts to break, one of those will perhaps be adopted.  Until that day comes, though, the structure of Governance is the simplest departure from directdemocracy that has been found to work at all.

Every voter of Civilization, everybody at least thirteen years old or who has passed some competence tests before then, primarily exerts their influence through delegating their vote to a Delegate; a Delegate must have at least fifty votes to participate in the next higher layer at all, and can retain no more than two hundred votes before the marginal added influence from each additional vote starts to diminish and grow sublinearly.  Most Delegates are not full-time unless they are representing pretty rich people, but they're expected to be people interested in politics and who spend a lot of time on that.  Your Delegate might be somebody you know personally and trust, if you're the sort to know so many people personally that you know one Delegate.  It might be somebody who hung out their biography on the Network, and seemed a lot like you in some ways, and whom you chatted with about politics in a forum visible to the Delegates' other voters so all their voters could verify that their Delegate hasn't been telling different people different stories.

If you think you've got a problem with the way Civilization is heading, you can talk to your Delegate about that, and your Delegate has time to talk back to you.  This feature has been found to not actually be dispensable in practice.  It needs to be the case that, when you delegate your vote, you know who has your vote, and you can talk to that person, and they can talk back.  Otherwise people feel like they have no lever at all to pull on the vast structure that is Governance, that there is nothing visible that changes when a voter casts their one vote.  Sure, in principle, there's a decision-cohort whose votes move in logical synchrony with yours, and your cohort is probably quite large unless you're a weird person.  But some part of you more basic than that will feel like you're not in control, if the only lever you have is an election that almost never comes down to the votes of yourself and your friends.

The rest of the electoral structure follows almost automatically, once you decide that this property has to be preserved at each layer.

There are a hundred more clever proposals for how to run Civilization's elections.  If the current system starts to break, one of those will perhaps be adopted.  Until that day comes, though, the structure of Governance is the simplest departure from directdemocracy that has been found to work at all.

Every voter of Civilization, everybody at least thirteen years old or who has passed some competence tests before then, primarily exerts their influence through delegating their vote to a Delegate.

A Delegate must have at least fifty votes to participate in the next higher layer at all; and can retain no more than two hundred votes before the marginal added influence from each additional vote starts to diminish and grow sublinearly.  Most Delegates are not full-time, unless they are representing pretty rich people, but they're expected to be people interested in politics and who spend a lot of time on that.  Your Delegate might be somebody you know personally and trust, if you're the sort to know so many people personally that you know one Delegate.  It might be somebody who hung out their biography on the Network, and seemed a lot like you in some ways, and whom you chatted with about politics in a forum visible to the Delegates' other voters so all their voters could verify that their Delegate hadn't been telling different people different stories.

If you think you've got a problem with the way Civilization is heading, you can talk to your Delegate about that, and your Delegate has time to talk back to you.

That feature has been found to not actually be dispensable in practice.  It needs to be the case that, when you delegate your vote, you know who has your vote, and you can talk to that person, and they can talk back.  Otherwise people feel like they have no lever at all to pull on the vast structure that is Governance, that there is nothing visible that changes when a voter casts their one vote.  Sure, in principle, there's a decision-cohort whose votes move in logical synchrony with yours, and your cohort is probably quite large unless you're a weird person.  But some part of you more basic than that will feel like you're not in control, if the only lever you have is an election that almost never comes down to the votes of yourself and your friends.

The rest of the electoral structure follows almost automatically, once you decide that this property has to be preserved at each layer.

There are a hundred more clever proposals for how to run Civilization's elections.  If the current system starts to break, one of those will perhaps be adopted.  Until that day comes, though, the structure of Governance is the simplest departure from directdemocracy that has been found to work at all.

Every voter of Civilization, everybody at least thirteen years old or who has passed some competence tests before then, primarily exerts their influence through delegating their vote to a Delegate.

A Delegate must have at least fifty votes to participate in the next higher layer at all; and can retain no more than two hundred votes before the marginal added influence from each additional vote starts to diminish and grow sublinearly.  Most Delegates are not full-time, unless they are representing pretty rich people, but they're expected to be people interested in politics and who spend a lot of time on that.  Your Delegate might be somebody you know personally and trust, if you're the sort to know so many people personally that you know one Delegate.  It might be somebody who hung out their biography on the Network, and seemed a lot like you in some ways, and whom you chatted with about politics in a forum visible to the Delegates' other voters so all their voters could verify that their Delegate hadn't been telling different people different stories.

If you think you've got a problem with the way Civilization is heading, you can talk to your Delegate about that, and your Delegate has time to talk back to you.

That feature has been found to not actually be dispensable in practice.  It needs to be the case that, when you delegate your vote, you know who has your vote, and you can talk to that person, and they can talk back.  Otherwise people feel like they have no lever at all to pull on the vast structure that is Governance, that there is nothing visible that changes when a voter casts their one vote.  Sure, in principle, there's a decision-cohort whose votes move in logical synchrony with yours, and your cohort is probably quite large unless you're a weird person.  But some part of you more basic than that will feel like you're not in control, if the only lever you have is an election that almost never comes down to the votes of yourself and your friends.

There are a hundred more clever proposals for how to run Civilization's elections.  If the current system starts to break, one of those will perhaps be adopted.  Until that day comes, though, the structure of Governance is the simplest departure from directdemocracy that has been found to work at all.

Every voter of Civilization, everybody at least thirteen years old or who has passed some competence tests before then, primarily exerts their influence through delegating their vote to a Delegate.

A Delegate must have at least fifty votes to participate in the next higher layer at all; and can retain no more than two hundred votes before the marginal added influence from each additional vote starts to diminish and grow sublinearly.  Most Delegates are not full-time, unless they are representing pretty rich people, but they're expected to be people interested in politics and who spend a lot of time on that.  Your Delegate might be somebody you know personally and trust, if you're the sort to know so many people personally that you know one Delegate.  It might be somebody who hung out their biography on the Network, and seemed a lot like you in some ways, and whom you chatted with about politics in a forum visible to the Delegates' other voters so all their voters could verify that their Delegate hadn't been telling different people different stories.

If you think you've got a problem with the way Civilization is heading, you can talk to your Delegate about that, and your Delegate has time to talk back to you.

That feature has been found to not actually be dispensable in practice.  It needs to be the case that, when you delegate your vote, you know who has your vote, and you can talk to that person, and they can talk back.  Otherwise people feel like they have no lever at all to pull on the vast structure that is Governance, that there is nothing visible that changes when a voter casts their one vote.  Sure, in principle, there's a decision-cohort whose votes move in logical synchrony with yours, and your cohort is probably quite large unless you're a weird person.  But some part of you more basic than that will feel like you're not in control, if the only lever you have is an election that almost never comes down to the votes of yourself and your friends.

The rest of the electoral structure follows almost automatically, once you decide that this property has to be preserved at each layer.