Global voting in practice - proposal for using this platform for deliberation

Internet voting is probably the only workable way of implementing global voting and also global debate. This Global Voting Platform (GVP) shows that and, even more important, how this can be done - thereby opening room for further deliberation.

This proposal therefore aims at using the GVP for a workability examination of global voting - with completely open results. A result might even be that global voting is questioned fundamentally. I am sure that a thorough debate of the "if´s" and "how's" of global voting will be of practical use for further developing the idea of global democracy.

So, the focus of this proposal is not the GVP itself, but to use the GVP as a stepstone to get to - and eventually answer - the substantial questions that the idea of global voting raises. The GVP has, I believe, already answered the question "can this be done at all?" so that on this ground the debate now can proceed to practical and at the same time fundamental issues.

As a start, here are questions and categories I could think of - hoping for and happy about every contribution!

Fundamental questions:

• What is the purpose of global voting?
  • To mandate a global legislative institution, i.e. world parliament?
  • To mandate a global executive institution, i .e. world government?
  • To generate global opinion polls without further implementation power?
• What acceptance is to be expected for global voting and which factors are important in this context?
• Which are fundamental obstacles to global voting?

Questions of content:

• Which issues should be voted on and which not?

Questions around the voting process:

• Should the platform used provide for neutral (as possible...) information about voting issues?
• Should there be a mandatory debate step before voting?

Questions about the voting process itself:

• One person - one vote, or e.g. "degressive proportionality" as in voting for the EU parliament?
• What kind of global voting could be acceptable for every world citizen, e.g. anonymous or pseudonymous or with visible personal identity?

Technical questions:

• How to avoid fraud as internet voting seems to be used as a means of manipulating voting results in dictatorships?
• How to allow for participation of people living in countries where they might face severe obstacles and also consequences if they use an internet based platform for free debate and voting?

TO BE CONTINUED... AND COMPLETED!

Let's start the debate!

mcw