Liquid Democracy: Building Transparent Delegation Systems

Democracy has a scaling problem. Direct democracy works for small groups. Representative democracy scales but you lose agency. Liquid democracy is a third way.

The Core Concept

In liquid democracy:

1. Vote directly on the issue, OR
2. Delegate your vote to someone you trust

Delegation is transitive. If Alice → Bob → Carol, Carol has 3 votes.

Why It's Powerful

• Flexibility: Delegate to different people for different topics
• Accountability: Delegates' votes are public
• Scalability: Trust experts in their domains

The Data Structure

At its core, liquid democracy is a directed graph:

interface Delegation {
  from: string;
  to: string;
  topic?: string;
}

Counting Votes: Graph Traversal

function resolveVote(voterId, proposalId, visited = new Set()) {
  if (visited.has(voterId)) return null; // cycle
  visited.add(voterId);

  const direct = getDirectVote(voterId, proposalId);
  if (direct) return direct;

  const delegate = getDelegate(voterId);
  if (!delegate) return null;

  return resolveVote(delegate, proposalId, visited);
}

Transparency: The Killer Feature

• Delegation graph is public
• Votes are auditable
• Retract delegation instantly if you disagree

Topic-Scoped Delegation

Delegate your economist friend for fiscal policy, your doctor for healthcare.

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Originally published at ryancwynar.com