Hacker News Reader

That's several direct democracy parties where I live but to date none have won a seat. It's an interesting concept but I can think of many ways it could go horribly wrong (think Reddit with the marathon bombing). Also wouldn't such a system still be beholden to lobbying groups (possibly more so)?

View on HN

We have had one direct democracy party reach majority and form a government with hilarious results. The moment they had power direct democracy ideas died. In a single term they found themselves at government with the left, the alt right, then a large coalition, then a technical government. They should have self financed the direct democracy platform using their salary, and basically stopped doing that most immediately. The platform holder dragged them to tribunal, and party ownership is currently undecided.

Which country/party is that? When did that happen?

The FiveStar party in Italy did this. They had an online platform for their members, and apparently the way it went was that they'd first massage everyones opinion in the forums, and then let them vote.

I read it in a great long read from Wired called 'What Happens When Techno-Utopians Actually Run a Country'.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com