Decision-Making with Peer Democracy

Peer Democracy creates a new decision-making culture. The culture builds on two known principles. We want democratic decision-making to be just. Justice can mean both fairness and rewarding knowledge so that competence gives more influence. Both these ideas operate in Peer Democracy.

1. Division of Labor, the principle governing the free market.
Everyone chooses a topic of interest, and then ranks, debates, and votes on it. But we don’t select the same topic, because we have different interests.

2. The Wisdom of Crowds, or Collective Intelligence.
Every topic collects an anonymous crowd of decision-makers. A state of Openness, Peering, Sharing, and Action emerges. A mixed group of independent people makes better decisions together than the best single expert in the long run.

Benefits:

• Efficient
• Scalable
• Improved decision quality
• Low administration costs
• Freedom of choice
• Creates a global community
• Encourages local participation

A Positive and Responsible Culture

Budgeting requires cooperation and coordination. The workload and responsibility are distributed evenly and fairly. Every citizen has equal responsibility. The yearly participatory budget vote is common to everyone. Besides budgeting, you also choose an individual issue. At a global level, first you decide which of the UN 17 Goals to concentrate on. Then you get suggestions on proposals within this UN Goal to choose, debate, and vote on.

By balancing workload, responsibility, and power, PD builds trust, respect, and belonging between peers. A culture of respect is established. The rules are based on fairness, efficiency, transparency, and security.

Mechanisms that prevent fraud and corruption

• It is impossible to prove how someone else has voted.
• If you are forced to vote a certain way, you can change later.
• One is not allowed to vote in matters that conflict with private affairs (disqualification).
• Whistleblowers (who expose attempts at fraud and corruption) are rewarded and protected.
• The driving force is the will to create a better world.

The Division of Labor

The philosopher and National Economist Adam Smith (1723-1790) believed that the secret of business success is that people specialize. No one is an expert in everything, but everyone can be an expert in something. Peer Democracy is based on the same principle. It allows everyone to be a politician, but only for one issue a year, plus the budget. Self-limitation means that you choose to specialize in one issue yourself. We think decision-making will improve by substituting power concentration with division of Labor.

General Vote on the Budget

In Peer Democracy, the budget is decided in common. The budget is the most important issue that balances the framework for the other issues. The budget is debated locally and set individually by adjusting the digital budget simulator. Globally, background material comes from UN and World Bank economists. The budget proposal is made with the simulator. Think of it as an audio mixer where the volume slider represents the tax rate and the various committees correspond to different channels. Everyone creates a balanced setting—a budget proposal—using the simulator. The median proposal is then adopted as next year’s budget. The average is not chosen because extreme suggestions would then affect the result.

Why Peer Democracy is needed on the Global Level

The construction of the UN, with veto rights, makes it impossible to make the necessary decisions for the planet. We need laws that apply to everyone, everywhere. Sovereign nations must accept that they only control geopolitical areas in our shared world. PD should emerge where the need is most urgent: the world at large. This will not happen without a preceding popular grassroots movement.