The Association for Interactive Democracy shares the results of its research on the opportunities and risks of technology for democracy, social cohesion, inclusion and conflict management with the scientific world, as well as as practitioners in the field. The association conducts talks and joins panels for an exchange of experiences.
Talks
- LiquidFeedback - A fair deliberation and decision making process
The talk describes the challenge of debates within large scale groups, and how LiquidFeedback—an Open Source software by the Public Software Group—can provide a self-organized opinion formation process without moderator intervention even when real conflicts are present. Moreover, the talk explains how sophisticated preference aggregation algorithms protect against the dominance of noisy minorities, hate speech, and trolling, all the while making sure that minorities can express their point of view.
- Preference aggregation algorithms for a fair deliberation and decision making
What mathematics can do for activists and politicians
- Transitive Proxy Voting (Liquid Democracy)
Liquid Democracy relies on the notion of the division of labor, which has been part of the success story of the human species. Over the centuries, the division of labor—specialization and cooperation—has become increasingly complex. No modern society can exist without it. Today, it not only affects the economic systems that underlie social life, but also has repercussions in the world of democracy. While representative democracy constitutes a clear division of labor in the field of politics, Liquid Democracy facilitates a dynamic division of labor based on individual choice. Ultimately, the decision for, or against, representation is left to the voter, applies to his or her own vote, can be topic-specific, and can be adjusted at any time.
Ongoing Debates
- The tyranny of supermajorities
The fairytale of consensus: Majority rule and political equality
- Reaching across the aisle - The merit of the argument in a highly polarized society
Finding common ground among conservatives, liberals, and independents
- The poison of disinformation and provocation
When platforms become toxic to democratic culture
- Social algorithms and ideologically diverse content
Keeping individual choice, filters, and personalization in perspective
- Pre-Columbian inspiration
What Indigenous Nations can teach us about democracy and the common good
- Social cohesion in a more perfect union
FDR reloaded—The common good
- Latinx population (US) - Latinx civic and political participation: a new dawn?
Ensuring the democratic participation of “the new majority” in the USA
- Blockchain in governance (in particular in the Global South)
Distributed ledgers for public trust
- The red line—fact and fiction
Resisting opportunistic temptations for short term gains
- Ethnic and gender diversity in the democratic process
Inclusion and participation as the foundations for democracy
- Town halls and the online deliberation: A mutually beneficial symbiosis
The best of two worlds: Citizen assemblies and online participation infrastructure
- Political hacks for good or bad
The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact and Gerrymandering
Previous Keynotes and Panels (selection)
- Liquid Democracy, Algorithms, and the Temporal Dimension
Mechanism Design for Social Good, Carnegie Mellon University, Harvard University
- Deliberation across political fault lines, bottom-up approaches, and the role of the regions
Berlin Conference 2021: Europe Bottom-Up!
- Implementing online deliberative methods of engagement
Centre for Democratic Engagement and UK House of Commons
- Mathematics for Social Activism
University of Leeds, UK
- Internet Deliberation and Voting
Hertie School of Governance, Berlin
- Digital Democracy
King's College London, UK
- The Future of Democracy
University of Bologna, Italy
- A fair process of decision making
University of Toulouse, France
- Conectados por la Paz in Bogotá, Colombia
with the Office of the High Commissioner for Peace (OACP) to the Colombian government
- Technology & Strengthening Democracy in Islamabad, Pakistan
with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) New York
- Political Parties and the Citizens in Yangon, Myanmar,
with the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) Stockholm, Sweden
