Pocket Politics

Theoretical Fundament

Democratic Fatigue Syndrome

Legitimacy - Efficiency

Occupy Wall Street - 2011

"That experience of egalitarian, direct democracy, as an alternative to the wrangling of representative democracy, proved infectious." - David van Reybrouck

4 Diagnoses:

The fault of politicians
(Populism)

The fault of democracy
(Technocracy)

The fault of representative democracy
(Direct democracy)

The fault of electoral-representative democracy
(New)

We are all electoral fundamentalists!

"Imagine a real-time technology driven democratic process – similar to town hall meetings – where everyone is invited to participate when the issues are most poignant. Leaders facilitate decisions instead of exerting their influence and the solutions are as diverse as the population that serves them up. Debate is transparent and contributes to knowledge growth. There are no headstrong people who stubbornly lobby for their point of view despite diminishing favor. And once a quorum is reached, everyone aligns around the decision and moves with speed as a cohesive group." - Michael Papay, David Timby (2014)

First Draft Publication: Pocket Politics Paul Geideck

4.48 billion people use social media worldwide. Out of 4.48 billion social media users, 99% access websites or apps through a mobile device. Globally, the average time a person spends on social media a day is 2 hours 24 minutes. Currently, we got platforms for all spheres of life – networking, fitness, gaming, etc. No matter the interests, there is a social media app for everyone. And not only is this trend limited to teenagers and young adults anymore, an increasing amount of people over 30 engage with it as well.
No one can deny it anymore: mobile phones and the use of social media will continuously shape the world and societies as we know them.

Worldwide, almost 50% of the global population lives in working democracies. In these countries, 90% of the people have access to mobile phones and the internet. Free, fair and equal elections are ensured and citizens enjoy the right to shape the political agenda. Still, as Robert Putnam identified in his “Bowling Alone”, the communal sense is vanishing and people become decreasingly interested in engaging with democracy. On top of that, electoral turnouts are shrinking and less people become party members or feel a sense of affiliation.

Nevertheless, I argue that my generation and the following ones are in fact more political and want to fight for the world they imagine. A vision of a world that in many realms conflicts with the normative idea of generations before us. A shift in values has gradually taken place since the 1980s. In prosperous countries, individuals moved towards post-material and self-expression values – a phenomenon tracked by Roland Inglehart’s life’s work.

The question arises: If the new generations are so political, why do we observe a decline in political participation? The answer goes hand-in-hand with the necessity for re-imagining the concept of contemporary political participation. With the increase in the global population, the only politically logical response has been representative democracy, but what happens if the link between citizens and parties vanishes? What happens if young people do not feel represented anymore? Which party does an immigrated 25 year old investment banker, who engages in LGBTQ rights and more economic protectionism, vote for?

Political participation has already shifted to more unconventional forms long ago. Social disobedience, consumerist behavior and of course social media usage has moved to the center of attention, because many young people do not feel represented anymore. Nevertheless, these forms of participation are often not consistent enough, not tailored to individual needs and not recognized by governments.

At this point, Pocket Politics takes over. The first exclusively political social media platform that enables citizens to show their policy-makers what they actually want and need. Re-building the link between people and politics in practice is at the center of this app, towards participation without an intense money or time barrier. Through the use of polls, a stronger voice for citizens is guaranteed. For the first time, technology overcomes the physical constraints of more direct democracy. In their region, citizens will be able to express their values and start their own polls to connect with kindred spirits. Especially young people, who lack any party affiliation and do not feel represented, will profit from Pocket Politics. With only a few klicks each day, the feeling of untouchable elites who decide the course will disappear and accountability, as well as transparency will emerge.

A user experience simplistic, yet aesthetically appealing; fast and easy to digest, yet comprehensive and factually correct. A pleasant design paired with well-conducted research.

If people invest only a quarter of the time they spend on common social media platforms, great impact and progress towards better working democracies will be made.

First mock-up version

1. Direct

2. Equal

3. Constant dialogue

Against Elections - David van Reybrouck

Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology - David Graeber

"Governing people is not a way to force people to do what the governor wants; it is always a versatile equilibrium, with complementarity and conflicts between techniques which assure coercion and processes through which the self is constructed or modified by himself." - Foucault, 1993

Problem Analysis - Guiding the Process

1. What is your problem statement?

The current channels of political participation in democracies are outdated. Representative democracy is not ensuring a working democracy anymore, due to being undermined by lobbyism, corruption, incumbency entrenchment, clientelism, elitism and a focus on reelection instead of programmatic politics. The voices of citizens are not included in the decision-making process and people do not feel represented anymore.

2. What is the desired impact of your problem?

To enable direct influence and participation political decisions by citizens. To transform political systems by incorporating technological devices to implement a more direct form of democracy. Furthermore, to move closer to anarchical structures of state organization on the long run.

3. What are some challenges you may face?

This enhanced form of participatory governance requires a re-thinking and -learning, away from the feeling of powerlessness and missing influence in fully representative democracies. People are not used to such a level of influence and engagement. This was observed in Germany during the Weimar Republic times already. The citizens were not yet ready for increased co-decision making. Therefore, this process has to implemented in incremental steps.

Another challenge concerns the scope/the target audience of the application. A national level may be impossible to implement in the beginning. A complete refraining from some form of technocracy will most likely even prove dangerous.

On top of that, the question of creating attention and how to excite people for daily usage is at the center of attention.
At thus point, the design choices and presentation will become crucial.

4. What is he reason for your product?

On the one hand, populist, anti-establishment voices are louder than ever in recent times. Many people are haunted by fears of losing, which serves as fuel for extremist logics and reasoning.
On the other hand, corruption and lobbyism. together with increased transparency in transnational issues undermines democratic systems. On top of that, the electoral arena has become a fight for reelection and the especially young generations do not feel any kind of attachment to established parties anymore, which can be observed in the decline in electoral turnouts and the increase in volatility. Societies are becoming fatigue of representative democracy and one big, overarching crisis, and our global situation does not look all too different from a hundred years ago.

I believe it crucial to counter these problems with an increased inclusion of citizens' voices and a transformation of democracy as we know it.

5. Who is your main audience?

My application mainly aims at younger generations aged 16 to 30. Those will be the generations that will inevitably live through a big change of our current world order and even planet.

The scope of the app, at first, will be limited to a regional/city level to work as a trial and enable implementation.

6. Why should the audience care?

Because many people are unsatisfied with the current order and politics of their country. Especially when talking to people my age, this is a feeling that cross-cuts through many different layers of society.
Nevertheless, most people lack either the vision or simply the time/means to engage and ultimately change something and therefore fall into apathy.

Furthermore, especially the young generations' values clash with the older ones (and therefore with the current incumbents), so I believe it is time to aim for more hearing, influence and power - in Foucault's understanding.

Aspects to modify:

1. Accessibility

-not easy to start

-time-consuming

-not understandable for everyone

2. Design

-not intuitive

-no color coding

-web version unclear

Aspects to take over:

1. Technopolitical hybridization

-away from 'digital reductionism'
combination of face-to-face and digital

-confrontation is necessary

2. Transparency at any stage

3. Legitimacy before participation

-acceptance in social and political groups and institutions

Open Source Governance

Aspects to take over:

1. Foucault's understanding of governance

2. Wisdom of the crowd

-need to look into it properly first

3. Simplicity and understandability

Aspects to modify:

1. Missing blueprint for putting into practice

Proposals

1. Everyone can write them - Everyone can vote on them

2. Voting procedure?

-simple majority
-plurality
-2/3 majority

always the same or differing between proposals

3. Regulations

-ban of proposals that go against group in population based on
personal characteristics such as ethnicity, gender, sex, health, outer
appearance, etc.

-opinions have to be open for debate
but as always the difficult task: What is an opinion and what not?

4. Voting time frame

-1 month
enables proper research on and confrontation with topic
short term changes can be taken into account but not endless process

Search function

1. Use of key words to find proposals

2. Tool to discover proposals based on grouping through realms

-Environment
-Finances
-Migration
-Education
-etc.

Profile

1. Personalized through ID to prevent fake accounts

2. Tool to see and follow all saved proposals

Attention and Legitimacy

1. Social organizations cooperation

2. Use by prominent people already involved in politics

3. Political parties

4. Government subsidies

5. Popular NGOs

6. Advertisement through social media

Funding

1. Government

2. NGOs

3. EU

4. Private