This article was taken from the June 2015 issue of WIRED magazine. Be the first to read WIRED's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
Political systems are archaic, says Pia Mancini, 32. So she wants to reboot them for the digital voter. In 2012, the Argentinian entrepreneur cofounded DemocracyOS, an open-source web application that enables online debate and voting. "The problem with politics is that it relies on very precarious ways to gauge the public's opinion," she says. "Political systems are not broken -- you just need to build new connections."
DemocracyOS participants can aid decision-making in real time, through reading, discussion and votes. For instance, a political representative could upload information to the platform about a proposed piece of legislation, then invite debate on it. "No one wants to be treated as a naïve recipient of a monologue," Mancini says. "We want conversation."
In 2013, with partner Santiago Siri, Mancini founded the Argentinian political party Partido de la Red (The Net Party), which is committed to voting on legislation based purely on what its constituents decide via the tool. The party (whose popularity is rising but which has yet to win a political seat) recently used DemocracyOS to present 16 bills. Voters pushed so heavily on a bill to improve nurses' conditions that it's now being discussed in Congress.
DemocracyOS has been picked up in Mexico, Spain, Finland, Chile and Kenya. Now, Mancini is upgrading it with seed accelerator Y Combinator so that anyone -- not just politicos, but activists or unions -- can use it to share ideas and debate them. "Democracy is about making better decisions together," Mancini says.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
