Will the Blockchain Replace Government?
Have you ever looked around and thought "Damn our politics are out-dated!" It seems to be a prevailing thought that politics no longer serve the people except in a few lucky countries like New Zealand, Norway, France and a few others.
So this got me thinking. Isn't it time to change it all? Doesn't the idea of a bunch of old guys, many of whom are technophobes and hopelessly corrupt, sitting around making our decisions seem....well whacked?
Should governments simply adopt blockchain tech for elections? This has become a popular idea anyway such as this article points out Maybe it is time for global blockchain based elections, for true global governance, to hell with national borders! What happens in the world affects everyone else, so why doesn't everyone have a say? Would you welcome such a change?
What about the use of blockchain for public services this article highlights a few of the possibilities and current realities. So if we carry out government services on the blockchain, vote on the blockchain, then what are the politicians doing again?
@blocho wrote a great Steemit post about it too
Can government be done away with? Can we start talking about digital goverance and resign the building and people of this old system to the dustbin of history?
I know Steemians are forward thinkers so I am really keen to hear everyone's views on this topic!
I don't think Blockchain can replace government but help it be more transparent and clear.
Sadly, the "old boys" are an artifact of electoral democracy from times before we had telegraph. Back then it made sense to elect somebody in to office for 4 years since it was impossible to get a productive discussion or any kind of consensus over large distances. Today we have opinions swing within minutes.
Global governance might be very impractical, narrow majority wins have consequences over a larger set of people and create a feeling of tyranny by majority.
I would say that Switzerland's referendum system is the closest we can imagine easily being implemented on a blockchain. If I'm not wrong, they get 3-6 referendum questions every 3 months and they can be canton specific or federal.
The first hurdle is to get started, like implementing a blockchain cadastre, that initial information entry is the hardest but all changes afterwords will be a breeze.
Politicians would still be there for the legislation execution of what the general public decides on. If we take their right to initiate legislations and vote on them, they become very useful.
I might write a larger post to expand on how I might see that possible.
I like such a model where citizens are in actually getting a regular number of referendum questions put in front of them. Obviously democracy of the masses is a sloppy affair. Here in NZ we have a Multi Member Proportional system. So essentially there are 70 electorate seats, and 50 seats allocated by party vote. Something similar could work for global goverance to make it more inclusive of different parties and vioces whether we keep the politicians or not . Global federalism backed up by the blockchain?
Referendums are a very good way to get publics opinion if done correctly.
Correctly here can mean a lot of different things but I'd mention two reasons that I think are important.
One of the problems with any representative democracy is that its prone to the agenda of specific interest groups... even more if they are elected for a relatively long period of time.
We assume they will perform their duties with moral/principles with which we elected them.
One more problem is also compromises people are willing to take. Politicians might take compromises that are not supported by majority of their constituency and they start feeling betrayed, even though they are getting the result they voted for.
Global governance implemented on a blockchain sounds like the way to go but depends largely on the execution. We can decide on stuff like basic human rights on that level but nuances should trickle down to smaller constituency.
That is so true, no one solution can really effective for the whole globe, implementation would need to take place a local level.
Wording has always been important, and will stay important. People will never be removed from the process perhaps, just less important in the future.
Exactly! We can all decide that fresh water is a human right but what would be an acceptable dress code should be down to the culture of that region/city/neighborhood.
You got it, never removed but with limited/balanced power spread between politicians and general public.
Ok! Now let's just get everyone else on board :)
I was actually thinking about this for some time now and I think we already might have a solution that was waiting for something like blockchain.
This discussion is making me think that the best actually might be to write a story about it and at least try to kick off some debate on steem :)
Certainly blockchain has the potential to influence governments for sure!! It povides a platform for more openess and decision making.
We still have a long way to go, but remember, we are the movement!
Yeah the potential is astonishing. That is true, we do have a long way to go, but I feel like at least we have found the right road to walk down!
I certainly hope this can become a reality. What a thought.