On this occasion, I thought it would be interesting to share with you an ingenious "open government" initiative taking place in my country. Inspired by the principles of free software and leveraging available computing resources, a group of young residents of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires decided to create the Net Party (PR).
What makes this political party unique is that it built a digital platform, DemocraciaOS , so that all residents of Buenos Aires can debate and vote on laws in the City Legislature. And this isn't just a "virtual" experience. The PR candidates elected in the last elections pledged to vote according to the opinions expressed on DemocraciaOS regarding each bill. Citizens can access not only the full text of the bills but also a concise, easier-to-understand version.
In the video below they explain it very well.
What I like most about this initiative is that it goes against that idea of ​​the popular slogan during the hectic days of December 2001, when Argentina went through one of the most serious institutional crises in its history. With that phrase, people synthesized their dislike of the "political class." It was something very similar to the "indignados" movement in Spain. In the PR, on the other hand, they have managed to overcome this initial rejection of politics and have transformed it into something constructive, which encourages political participation instead of deactivating it. They do not fight so that "everyone leaves" but so that "everyone enters." Interesting concept, right?
On the other hand, it is worth asking: if we have reached the point where we were able to digitize banking transactions to inhospitable places and we put our trust in electronic tools to handle central issues in our lives, why not do the same with the legislative debate and allow that those same tools serve to democratize the political game. And more interesting still, why is it that no one thought of this before? Could it be that there is little interest on the part of the politicians themselves or of the centers of power that people really get involved in political life?
This is also a "going beyond" the mere electronic vote that is already being implemented in several countries. This is about truly democratizing the decision and legislative debate, which is still a wave of fresh air in the midst of the enormous crisis of representation that a large part of representative democracies are going through, in their different forms.
To finish, I think it's important to mention that DemocraciaOS is currently in a test version so that people can become more familiar with the idea. As of next 10/12/2013, the candidates elected from the Red Party will assume their position in the Buenos Aires legislature. From then on, everything that is voted on the website will have a real impact on the legislature, because the legislators of the PR will vote according to the results of the votes on the website. For this reason, users who have not validated their identity will not be able to continue using the website (as they do until now). The identity validation will be face-to-face and both the identity of the user (by means of DNI) and their membership in the electoral roll of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires will be verified to ensure a certain "seriousness" in voting.
In the last elections, the PR obtained 21.368 votes (1,15% of the register). Taking into account that this is the first time you have participated in an election, it is not a negligible figure, right?