BEYOND POLITICS

Beyond Politics was founded with a vision of a key to solving many of the social and political problems which plague our world.

The vision has become an understanding of two elements: the Free Association (FA) and Delegable Proxy (DP), also called Liquid Democracy. A Free Association is simply a direct democracy of peers minus the coercive aspects that almost always accompany the transition of an informal association into a formal one, especially when the association becomes large. Delegable Proxy is a technology for maintaining direct democracy when the group size becomes large; while it may not seem necessary in small associations, even very small associations often suffer from problems that Delegable Proxy could ameliorate.

Delegable Proxy is deceptively simple: To traditional proxy representation (proxies are chosen, not elected) is added delegability of proxy assignments (the proxy of a proxy represents all those represented by the original proxy). This allows proxies to be chosen on a small scale, i.e., where there is some level of personal relationship between the proxy and the giver of the proxy, while still allowing the concentration of representation that is necessary in large organizations. As with the original proxy concept (practically universal in for-profit organizations with many owners, such as corporations), the individual still retains the right of individual vote.

Organizational ownership of significant property and the exercise of sovereignty may be contrary to the Free Association concept; rather, in a Free Association, power remains almost completely in the hands of the members. Where a Free Association decides to act in a way that requires ownership, it may set up an independent organization to hold the property; that organization might still use delegable proxy, but it also might be a traditional board-controlled organization, for example. Because Free Associations do not spend the contributions of members without their individual consent, only those members who choose to support the independent organization contribute to it.

It is important to realize FA-DP is not being suggested as a universal organizational solution; rather, it may be appropriate where an organization depends on the continued voluntary and broad support of its members and would benefit from the communication and efficiency advantages of delegable proxy. FA-DP organizations, with extremely low overhead, may exist in parallel with existing organizational structures; it is not necessary to change existing structures or laws. Yet, should membership in FA-DP organizations become significant, such organizations could exert tremendous power, and could, if it were determined to be appropriate, change existing structures.

For an introduction to what we see as the basic social problem and a possible direction we could take, please read The_Problem.htm and Beyond_Politics_Intro.htm.

This introduction was written by Abd ul-Rahman (Daniel) Lomax, the founder of Beyond Politics. However, if Beyond Politics is successful, its ultimate policies and activities will not be limited by his personal opinions and ideas; rather they will come from discussion and broad agreement among the members. This page is subject to change as recommended by the members, through http://beyondpolitics.org/wiki.

Corrections, comment, and criticism are sought, please write dlomax@beyondpolitics.org.

NEW! A Beyond Politics wiki has been set up. This is a publicly editable hypertext document to make the accumulation of discussion of the Beyond Politics concepts easy. Find it at http://www.beyondpolitics.org/wiki.

The founding vision understands that the pace and scale of life makes direct organizational participation difficult or impossible for many or even most people; even to simply read the traffic on a moderately active mailing list can become an excessive burden. However, anyone who is at all interested in our initiative is urged to write to info@beyondpolitics.org, or register on the wiki, which will give us a way to contact you. We will not allow you to be burdened beyond your consent.

“Lift a finger, change the world.”

“If we are going to change the world, it has to be easy.”