Demoex, an appellation short for ''

democracy Democracy (from , ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which political power is vested in the people or the population of a state. Under a minimalist definition of democracy, rulers are elected through competitiv ...

experiment'', is a local Swedish

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

and an experiment with

direct democracy Direct democracy or pure democracy is a form of democracy in which the Election#Electorate, electorate directly decides on policy initiatives, without legislator, elected representatives as proxies, as opposed to the representative democracy m ...

Vallentuna Vallentuna is the seat of Vallentuna Municipality in Stockholm County, Sweden, with 33,219 inhabitants in 2018. Vallentuna's cultural landscape is well preserved, and human habitation in the area has been traced back as far as the Stone Age. Arche ...

, a

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

.- DirectDemocracy online.'' Stockholm Challenge Award 2007-2008
/ref> It uses the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

to make it possible for any member to participate in the

local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of a higher-level political or administrative unit, such a ...

. Demoex has a representative in the municipal council, who votes in the council according to a poll that is held beforehand on the

website A website (also written as a web site) is any web page whose content is identified by a common domain name and is published on at least one web server. Websites are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose, such as news, educatio ...

of the party. This is unlike traditional representatives, who vote according to their own views or their party's views. Every Vallentuna resident older than 16 years can register on the website to vote; anyone in the world can take part in the debates, if they can write in Swedish. Voters do not have to vote on all issues; the fewer votes on an issue, the more weight each vote carries. To boost participation, the party allows users to choose someone to advise them on a particular topic. Demoex was founded on March 6, 2002, and won a local election in the municipality Vallentuna that year. 2002-2010 the Demoex representative was 19-year-old student Parisa Molagholi, elected on 4 November 2002 with 1.7% of the votes. She began serving as representative in 2003, and was re-elected in 2006 with 2.9% of the votes. Her success has astonished traditional politicians. The party's representative, Per Norbäck, was elected in 2010 with 1.76% of the vote. Demoex intends to become a national party and eventually an international party on the same principles. The Demoex system is a

political Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...

hybrid which uses

e-democracy E-democracy (a blend of the terms Electronic publishing, electronic and democracy), also known as digital democracy or Internet democracy, uses information and communication technology (ICT) in politics, political and governance processes. The ...

to inject direct democracy into a system of

representative democracy Representative democracy, also known as indirect democracy or electoral democracy, is a type of democracy where elected delegates represent a group of people, in contrast to direct democracy. Nearly all modern Western-style democracies func ...

. This creates a semi-representative democracy, similar to one that has been used in

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

since the late 19th century. In pure direct democracy, there are no representatives, or there are only proxy representatives with limited power. By contrast, in a representative democracy, the elected representatives have all the power to make political decisions. The Swiss ''

Landsgemeinde The ''Landsgemeinde'' ("cantonal assembly"; , plural ''Landsgemeinden'') is a public, non-secret ballot voting system operating by majority rule. Still in use – in a few places – at the subnational political level in Switzerland, it was fo ...

'' is one of the oldest and purest forms of direct democracy. It was originally introduced in the Swiss

Canton of Uri The canton of Uri ( ; ; ; ) is one of the cantons of switzerland, 26 cantons of Switzerland and a founding member of the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is located in Central Switzerland. The canton's territory covers the valley of the Reuss ...

in 1231, and was structured as an open-air gathering, usually in springtime, where votes were expressed by a show of raised hands. This system is still used in the

Canton of Glarus The canton of Glarus ( ; ; ; ) is a cantons of Switzerland, canton in east-central Switzerland. The capital is Glarus. The population speaks a variety of Alemannic German. The majority of the population (81%) identifies as Christianity in Switzer ...

and

Appenzell Innerrhoden Canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden ( ; ; ; ), in English sometimes Appenzell Inner-Rhodes, is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of five districts. The seat of the government and parliament is Appenzell. It is ...

.democracy springs eternal.'' Glarus, Switzerland: SwissInfo.com May 15, 2006 12:56PM
/ref>

Ideology

Although Demoex does not stand for any defined policy, it has a clear

ideology An ideology is a set of beliefs or values attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely about belief in certain knowledge, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones". Form ...

: To extend the degree of democracy in society. They claim that

technological Technology is the application of conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals, especially in a reproducible way. The word ''technology'' can also mean the products resulting from such efforts, including both tangible tools such as ute ...

solutions have surpassed the

. With the help of

information technology Information technology (IT) is a set of related fields within information and communications technology (ICT), that encompass computer systems, software, programming languages, data processing, data and information processing, and storage. Inf ...

Demoex wants to create liquid democracy.

Open society

The ideology is based on the thoughts from

Karl Popper Sir Karl Raimund Popper (28 July 1902 – 17 September 1994) was an Austrian–British philosopher, academic and social commentator. One of the 20th century's most influential philosophers of science, Popper is known for his rejection of the ...

and

Henri Bergson Henri-Louis Bergson (; ; 18 October 1859 – 4 January 1941) was a French philosopher who was influential in the traditions of analytic philosophy and continental philosophy, especially during the first half of the 20th century until the S ...

about

open society Open society () is a term coined by French-Jewish philosopher Henri Bergson in 1932, and describes a dynamic system inclined to moral universalism.Thomas Mautner (2005), 2nd ed. ''The Penguin Dictionary of Philosophy'' Open society" entry p. ...

; the vision of a society built on the principle of public access to official records. Demoex strives for increased access and partaking in the politics.

Statistical distribution

Demoex uses

statistical Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a s ...

distribution. It means that the purpose of Demoex representatives is to reflect the members' opinions as the online statistics indicate. If Demoex had 5 mandates and 60% of the users' votes for a proposal, then three of the representatives would vote "yes" to that proposal. The rounding follows according to mathematical principles. If it becomes impossible to reflect the members' opinions appropriately in one question, then one representative would give a blank vote. Statistical distribution is used because it gains democracy. In every question, there ought to be only one democratic election. Many sub-elections on the same issue can easily put the majority principle aside.

History

Grass-roots initiative

The idea for Demoex began at Vallentuna upper secondary school, on 3 October 2000. The municipality organized a theme day on "IT and democracy," and the question emerged why so few young people are politically active. Some students answered that they did not approve of choosing between ideologies. They expressed that their points of view were impossible to place on a political right-left scale. Other students were pessimistic about the aspects of political influence. They argued that "decisions are made from above". Others answered they had no time to be involved in politics. Others again thought of politics as boring, tiring, and insignificant. After an internet debate, an oral discussion with local politicians followed. The evaluation showed that students appreciated the speed and the structure offered by the electronic debate system but they felt run over by the traditional oral debate. From this experience, a handful of students discussed with their

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

teacher Per Norbäck the possibility of developing an e-democracy. They decided to register a party and candidate for the local government in September 2002 with only one promise: to inject direct democracy in the representative system. In January 2002, they started to work on the project. Soon after, they contacted Mikael Nordfors, a pioneer within e-democracy in Sweden. In the early 1990s, Mikael had founded a party with a similar ideology. Mikael offered Demoex to use the software he had implemented through his company. They made an Internet site, and started to sketch the work flow. Demoex tried to find a way to adopt direct democracy into the existing representative system. The Demoex model became a three-step process: #Thinning out #Debate #Cast ballot Thinning out consists of removing any irrelevant questions. In the thinning out process, all the public affairs that the local parliament is dealing with are presented. The voters report (on a scale of 1-5) what affairs they want to discuss and vote for. If an affair gets higher average report than 3.00, there will be a debate and a vote. In the debates, people argue for or against different political proposals. The debates are the base for the democratic votes. The debate is necessary in order to compare the pros and cons of the proposals. Any participant can contribute arguments to try to convince the other members of the "right" opinion. The deadline for casting ballots is one day before the meeting of the local parliament. The results of the ballots are transformed into mandates according to statistical distribution. To fulfill the process, a Demoex representative needs to sign a contract with the promise to represent this distribution in the local parliament.

Rules and advertising

The founding activists of Demoex also made rules for all participants to follow. They believed that the rules were necessary to avoid chaos. After they had set the rules and found an accurate work flow, they had to advertise the concept. They distributed leaflets in the local postboxes, made Demoex T-shirts, and borrowed a house van as base for the electoral campaign. A certain interest from the media gave Demoex some attention. Though the advertising campaign was small and cheap, it was enough to win the first mandate of a direct democracy party in Europe.

Similar initiatives

The

Five Star Movement The Five Star Movement ( , M5S) is a political party in Italy, led by Giuseppe Conte. It was launched on 4 October 2009 by Beppe Grillo, a political activist and comedian, and Gianroberto Casaleggio, a web strategist. The party is primarily d ...

is the second biggest party in Italy and use an ideology similar to Demoex, using their own software Rousseau to decide its policies. Lista Partecipata is an Italian initiative using a similar concept as Demoex. Their slogan is ''"The control of government in the hands of the citizens (and not only at election time)".'' Senator On-Line is an Australian political party which proposes to have no platform but rather to act based on online polls. Net Party in Argentina uses the software DemocracyOS for an online form of direct democracy, and its current goal is to get elected a congressperson who will vote according to what the citizenry decides online. Other similar initiatives: * Internet Party in Spain. * Sanjska služba in Slovenia. Since 2011, similar initiatives are working together as E2D.

References

Bibliography

* Barber, Benjamin R., 1984, '' Strong democracy: Participatory Politics for a New Age'', University of California Press, Berkeley, CA. * Dahl, Robert A., 1985, ''A preface to Economic Democracy'', Polity Press, Oxford. *Grönlund, Åke, 2001, ', VINNOVA Rapport VR 2001:26 och TELDOK Rapport 142. TELDOK/VINNOVA, Stockholm. * Habermas, Jürgen, 1996, '' Between Facts and Norms'', Polity Press, Cambridge. *Ilshammar, Lars, 2002, ', Universitetsbiblioteket, Örebro *Kvale, Steinar, 1997, ',

Studentlitteratur Studentlitteratur is an academic publishing company based in Sweden and publishing mostly in Swedish. It is one of the largest producers of university text books and course books in Sweden. The company was established in 1963 and is based in t ...

, Lund. *Torpe, Lars, 2002, Demokrati på nettet - status og perspektiver for digitalkommunikation i kommunerna, paper till den XIII Nordiske Statskunskabskongres, Aalborg Universitet, 15-16 Augusti 2002
Besökt 2003-03-15
*Verhulst Jos and Nijeboer Arjen - Direct Democracy - facts, arguments and experiences on the introduction of initiative and referendum - download for free in 8 languages - Democracy international

*NORBACK, Per. ''Demoex - think global, act local.'' Vallentuna, Sweden: The Utopian World Championship 2004. *Olsson, Anders R., 1999, ', Demokratiutredningens skriftserie nr. 16, SOU 1999:12, Fakta info direkt, Stockholm. *Olsson, Anders R., 2001, ', IT-kommissionen, Observatoriet för IT, demokrati och medborgarskap, Observatorierapport 35/2001, IT-kommissionen, Stockholm. *Ottesen, Karin, 2003, ', , Mitthögskolan, Sundsvall.