Why Digital Democracy?
The future of governance and why we should care
Over the past few months, I’ve immersed myself in two inspiring books that have profoundly unsettled me, confirming my sense that our current systems are deeply flawed. Previously, I explored Daniel Schmachtenberger’s metacrisis and Dr. Iain McGilchrist’s hemisphere theory, which explain why our societal values have twisted to favour relentless capitalism (Read: my piece on Byung-Chul Han's philosophy on the modern struggle between achieving more and connecting deeper).
If the phrase “It’s easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism” resonates with you, then you understand the gravity of our predicament.
“Plurality - the Future of Collaborative Technology and Democracy” by Audrey Tang, Glen Weyl and the ⿻ community, and “Less is More” by Jason Hickle — both books expose the systemic issues we face and challenge us to rethink our future, urging us to harness our collective intelligence for a more sustainable and inclusive world.
With this perspective in mind, let’s explore why Digital democracy matters, and how it directly impacts each one of us.
The analogy of our times
Imagine a frog placed in a pot of lukewarm water. The heat is turned up gradually, so slowly that the frog doesn’t notice the increasing temperature until it’s too late. This classic analogy captures the subtle yet profound changes happening in our world today (Read: my piece on the three phrases of awareness that we go through when faced with heightened risks). Technology, politics, and society are evolving in ways that might seem incremental but are fundamentally altering our environment. Just like the frog, many of us don’t realise the extent of these changes until we’re already in hot water.
What is Digital Democracy?
Digital democracy leverages technology to create a more inclusive, transparent, and participatory form of governance. At its core, it’s about using digital tools to empower citizens, ensuring that everyone’s voices can be heard and considered in decision-making processes. This isn’t a far-off ideal; it’s already being implemented successfully in places like Taiwan.
Taiwan certainly is a compelling case study in Digital democracy. Under the guidance of Audrey Tang, Taiwan’s former Digital Minister, the island nation has pioneered radical transparency and public participation in governance. Audrey, a programming prodigy and open-source advocate, has transformed Taiwan’s approach to democracy. Her initiatives, like vTaiwan platform, allow citizens to engage directly with policymakers, fostering a level of collaboration and consensus rarely seen elsewhere.
The country’s handling of the COVID19 pandemic has been deemed a global success, thanks to its swift, transparent , and citizen-centric approach. The government implemented an efficient contact tracing system using existing health insurance and immigration databases, which enabled rapid identification and isolation of potential cases. They introduced real-time digital dashboard that provided up-to-date information on case numbers, locations, and travel history, ensuring transparency and keeping the public well-informed. They also utilised technology to prevent stockpiling and ensure equitable distribution of masks by launching a rationing system, where citizens could purchase masks using their National Health Insurance cards at local pharmacies. The system was paired with an app that allowed people to check mask availability in real-time.
Taiwan’s proactive public health measures included early border controls, widespread testing, and quarantine protocols, which were communicated clearly and enforced strictly. These efforts, combined with a culture of civic responsibility and community solidarity, resulted in remarkably low infection rates and high public trust, demonstrating the effectiveness of a digitally empowered, transparent government response that every citizen could rely on and participate in.
“Everyone is an expert in their own feelings”
Audrey often emphasises the importance of including everyone in the decision-making process by recognising that each person is an expert on their own feelings and experiences. This philosophy underpins her entire approach to digital democracy and civic engagement, advocating for a more inclusive and participatory form of governance. Another core characterisation is her commitment to radical transparency — every government meeting is live-streamed, and decision-making processes are open to public scrutiny.
Audrey’s belief in the power of open data and collaborative governance has set a new standard for what digital democracy can achieve. Now, she’s taking the message global.
Accompanying Audrey on this world tour is Glen Weyl, co-author of “Plurality” and a principal researcher at Microsoft. Glen’s work, through RadicalxChange, explores innovative solutions to socio-economic problems, such as quadratic voting (allows for intensity of voting preference) and quadratic finance (allows for amplification of funding to marginalised communities). These concepts offer fresh perspectives on how we can make democratic processes more fair, inclusive and efficient. Together, Audrey and Glen’s collaboration presents an inspiringly powerful vision of a future where technology and democracy not only coexist, but thrive together (Read: Glen’s piece simplifying three core tech ideologies — corporate libertarianism, synthetic technocracy, digital democracy —and where they overlap).
Why should we care?
You might be wondering how all this relates to your everyday life. Here’s the thing — the principles of digital democracy are not confined to distant policy arenas — they have real, tangible impacts on our daily lives.
Ignoring the degradation of our environment is like ignoring a slowly heating pot of water. The cumulative effects of pollution, climate change, and resource depletion are already impacting us — rising food prices, more frequent natural disasters, and health issues caused by pollution. Politics, often driven by short-term gains and corporate interests, has exacerbated these problems by prioritising economic growth over environmental sustainability.
“It’s impossible to adequately understand our ecological crisis with the same reductive thinking that caused it in the first place. This is particularly clear when it comes to climate change. We tend to think about climate change as primarily a matter of temperature. Many people are not particularly concerned about this, because our everyday experience with temperature is that a few degrees doesn’t really make that much of a difference. But temperature is just the beginning — it’s the loose thread on the sweater.
If you remember, 2017 alone clobbered the Americas with some of the most destructive hurricanes on record. Harvey laid waste to huge swathes of Texas; Irma left Barbuda virtually uninhabitable; Maria plunged Puerto Rico into months of darkness, and wiped out 80% of the island’s crops. These were Category 5 hurricanes – the most severe type. Storms like these should happen only once in a generation. But in 2017 they rolled in one after another, leaving mayhem and destruction in their wake.”
— Jason Hickle, author of Less is More — How degrowth will save the world
Engaging in digital democracy means our input can help shape policies and values that prioritise the environment, ensure sustainable food practices, protect our personal data, and create an education and learning system that truly prepare us all for the future.
The changes are happening, whether we notice them or not. If we don’t engage now, we risk finding ourselves in an environment that’s drastically different — and not necessarily for the better.
To capture the spirit of the Plurality book, I will leave you with this quote:
Ask not “why is nobody doing this?” You are the nobody.
Practical next step?
A big part of my excitement lies in the fact that Plurality adopted its own philosophy and created the book through an open-source model. This allows the content to be populated in an evolving landscape of freely accessible and modifiable knowledge. The book not only invites readers to learn from it, but also to contribute to its ongoing development and improvement. People from all over the globe have joined in on the translation effort — there are currently 16 different language channels opened up on ⿻ Plurality discord channel.
Connecting with like-minded individuals and identifying key communities to engage with is essential. Real change requires collective action, and it’s wonderfully inspiring to witness so many people coming together, united by shared values and future vision.
(Watch: Audrey’s fireside chat in 2023 touching on the importance of collective intelligence, transparency, and humour in strengthening democracy — and how the Taiwan government is working to improve societal resilience through civic journalism training and fact-checking)
If you’re looking to break out of isolation and tap into the collective energy that is already making waves across the globe, see how conversations surrounding Plurality are spreading. Together, we can challenge the status quo, advocate for transparency, and build systems that truly serve the public good. The future isn’t just something that happens to us — it’s something we build together, step by step, node by node. Join the movement, contribute to the dialogue, and be part of the change we all want to see.
(Watch: Coming soon from Oscar-winning director Cynthia Wade and Emmy-winning producer Teri Whitcraft, “Good Enough Ancestor” tells the story of 🇹🇼’s 1st Digital Minister and the 🌏’s 1st 🏳️⚧️ minister Audrey Tang and how she took Taiwan from an occupation of their national legislature to being the world’s most respected digital democracy. Overcoming bullying, a fatal heart condition and gender dysphoria, Tang has emerged as the world’s most effective leader of nonviolent resistance to authoritarianism.)
สำหรับคนไทยที่เข้ามาอ่านและสนใจเรื่องนี้เป็นพิเศษ หวังว่าจะได้เจอกันอีกทีในกรุ๊ป Discord นะคะ ตอนนี้ต้องการคนแปล ENG → THA อย่างมาก