Liquid Score Voting: Part I

The following is a proposed legislative system by which democratic participation and representation can be maximized in a progressive society. It works within a variety of political structures and other democratic bodies. Although much of the language (e.g. “bill”, “state”) relies on a liberal democratic conception of political economy, these terms should be understood loosely to apply to similar concepts that may arise in the future.

In this brief first chapter, we’ll look at how legislation is proposed in such a system. In subsequent chapters, we’ll look at how bills are actually written, how they are voted on, and finally the practical, actionable steps that advocates of democratic maximization can take in order to bring our current system more in line with these proposals.

How Legislation Is Proposed

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Jurisdictions. New legislative proposals must be first be brought forth in a particular jurisdiction and undergo a process to identify additional stakeholders. The clearest and most accessible example of a jurisdiction at present is geographic: members of a region, city, community, or even a single apartment complex. Other potential stakeholder groups include economic (e.g. members of a trade union, homemakers), universal (e.g. questions of global transportation policy), and possibly consumer groups (e.g. elderly people). Such jurisdictions can therefore be orthogonal, and a person can belong to numerous jurisdictions.

As a rule of thumb, legislative questions should be proposed in the smallest possible relevant jurisdiction. For instance, a question related to the parking situation in a particular city should be proposed at the city level, rather than the regional or national level.

Initial Proposal. New legislation is proposed in one of two ways:

• An popularly-elected executive in the relevant body (e.g., a transportation minister or a governor) proposes a legislative question.
• A proportionate number of signatures is achieved on a petition (e.g. 10,000 people sign a petition in a city with a population of 1,000,000; or 100 people sign a petition in a local industry with approximately 10,000 workers).

Identifying Additional Stakeholders. If people from another jurisdiction believe that they are also stakeholders in that decision — say, for example, a city proposes a law to shut down a power plant that also provides power to nearby cities — there is a period during which they can propose to join the legislative process on that proposal. Whether or not they’re successful at joining is subject to the same process as the initial proposal —in this case, a decision by the second city’s mayor (executive) or achieving the required number of petition signatures there.

In the case where the majority of similar-level jurisdictions join — say, more than half of the cities in a state — a higher-level jurisdiction, such as a state, can adopt the legislative question by either executive or petition decision. At that point, other state-level jurisdictions can join directly as well, without needing to go through the city-level process.

Proposal Format. Legislative proposals should be formatted as questions, to which multiple parties can propose answers and potential solutions (bills), as will be discussed in Chapter Two. For example, “Should Marijuana Be Grown Commercially?” or “What Should State-Wide Math Standards Be for Elementary Education?”. Additionally, each legislative proposal must also be accompanied by one or more possible answers, which represent the preferences of the executive or petitioners. In this way, all proposed legislation will begin with at least two options: that of the petitioner(s), as well as the option “Status Quo”, which means that no change to the present laws occurs.

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Next, the legislative proposal moves on to a deliberative process, where variations of solutions pertaining to this question can be developed and refined.

Following chapters in this series:

• How Legislation Is Written
• How Legislation Is Voted On
• Recommended Political Action