Preface to the English Edition of the book
Introduction
PART I – PROBLEMS
1. Crisis of Reputation
2. Representational weakness of the political system
3. Power and distance from the citizen
4. Power and lack of control
4.1 Voting with integrated funeral
4.2 Regulatory bodies and missing separation of powers
4.3 The Executive extending its rights and powers
5. Established parties deciding in their own interest
5.1 Party financing
5.2 Post patronage
6. Influencing the representatives in a parliamentary democracy
6.1 How many lobbyists are there?
6.2 How can the lobbyists influence elected representatives?
6.3 Whom will lobbyists influence?
6.4 Are lobbyists to be rejected?
7. Influencing Voters in a Direct Democracy
7.1 Direct bribery of individual voters
7.2 Further influences on the individual voter
7.3 Influenced by interest groups
7.4 Influenced by statistics
7.5 Influenced by media
8. Can we entrust this power to the citizen?
8.1 Fears of the critics
8.2 US study disproves the fears of critics
8.3 Encouraging experiences with new participatory models
8.4 (Is there a) Danger of oppression of minorities?
8.5 Some important policy decisions
PART II – SOLUTION APPROACH
9. Not a new party but a new breed of party
9.1 Trust alone, is not enough
9.2 Proof trustworthiness
10. The proxy party as a way to direct democracy
10.1 Why a proxy party?
10.2 Proxy Party and proxy representative
10.3 Proxy Party as a way to direct democracy
10.4 Liquid democracy in the Proxy Party
10.5 What are the tasks of the representatives?
10.6 Does the party need an official leadership? Which tasks does this have?
11. Appointment of candidates
11.1 Profile of direct candidates
11.2 Profile of list candidates
11.3 Appointment of candidates on the basis of a better voting system
12. Finding topics and voting on them
13. Core topics of the Proxy Party
13.1 Grassroot democracy
13.2 Transparency
13.3 Media
13.4 Complementing topics
14. Deducted core topics of an election program
15. Software systems for the Proxy Party
15.1 Safety
15.2 Member authentication
15.3 Properties as a voting system and as a coordination system
16. Questions about the Proxy Party
17. Main potential attack vectors and defensive measures
18. Hasn’t this been tried and failed with the Pirates Party?
18.1 Reasons for the rise and fall of the pirate party in Germany
18.2 Self-reflection and outlook
18.3 Deducted success factors for the Proxy Party
18.4 How is the Proxy Party different than the Pirate Party?
19. Why isn’t it sufficient to vote single proxy representatives?
Conclusion: It’s about time