Delegation and Unbundling in a Crypto-Democracy
15 Pages Posted: 18 Jul 2017
Date Written: July 13, 2017
Abstract
Representative democracy consists of a chain of delegation from voters to the executive and a corresponding chain of accountability, with some questions (particularly constitutional questions) reserved for popular vote. This structure reflects the high transaction costs of coordinating preferences among a large and diverse population, which has in part been determined by technological limitations. A new technology, blockchain, significantly reduces transaction costs. This technology turns out to have significant implications for democratic governance. In a crypto-democracy, voters have contractual relationships that allow them to unbundle, delegate, re-rebundle and reserve their voting power. Rather than planning our democratic structure and thus restricting opportunities for political exchange, the use of blockchain in a crypto-democracy allows us to ‘grow’ a democracy in a Hayekian framework.
Keywords: Crypto-Democracy, Blockchain, Transaction Costs, Institutional Economics, Democracy, Representative Government
JEL Classification: D02, D7, D72, P4
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation