German Pirate Party Prepares for Launch of New Web Platform: "Liquid Democracy"

From Earth Times:

Liquid Feedback, rolled out to Pirate Party members on Thursday, is the next step in their process of engaging people directly in the democratic process, at a time when Germany's electorate has felt particularly removed from the decision makers.

The interactive platform enables party members to propose initiatives - on topics ranging from town planning to foreign policy, or internal party matters - and vote for or against proposals.This enables a "liquid" form of democracy because people can have their say on individual matters and, crucially, they can assign their vote to somebody else on any given issue, if they lack expertise.In this way, it enables voters to delegate decisions, in the same way as occurs in traditional politics, but breaks this process down so that different representatives can be appointed on each subject, rather than buying into a bundled party political platform.At present the Liquid Feedback platform provides a forum for Pirate Party members to interact, but it is ultimately intended as a model for politics as a whole."People who are growing up with the internet are not pure media consumers. They are used to a read-write culture in which they can participate," the 42-year-old said.

The discussion has already gotten going at the German Pirate Party Website, though apparently the new platform will not be fully rolled out until later this month.