Direktdemokraterna

Aktiv Demokrati
Leader	All members
Founded	2002
Headquarters	On the Internet
Ideology	Direct democracy E-democracy Open-source governance
Colours	Red, Green, Blue, Black
Website
www.direktdemokraterna.se www.aktivdemokrati.se

Direktdemokraterna ("direct democrats"), previously Aktiv Demokrati ("active democracy") is a political party founded in 2002. Their aim is to get direct, e-democracy in Sweden, using a mix of delegation and direct electronic voting methods. The party strives to get all citizens from various backgrounds engaged in civic issues in whatever way is most effective for them, getting the voices of the people heard directly in parliament through an internet based democracy system. It aims to bring together as many people as possible thus creating a representative democracy.

In April 2014, Direktdemokraterna prepared to merge with a similar political group named Demoex. Together they state they are to become known as "Direct Democrats," or in Swedish, Direktdemokraterna.

It was founded by an anonymous third party as an open wiki, which quickly gained momentum. This wiki made it possible for those politically interested to voice their opinions anonymously by posting whatever content they desired without being traced by the government. Participants of this wiki banded together to create an environment where they could discuss politics without harassment. As it gained traction the open wiki discussion was moved to metro.se until finally switching to GPL software which they use today.

The Party's annual budget is $200. Direktdemokraterna wants to introduce direct-democracy in Sweden by running for election and becoming part of parliament. It has participated in elections for both the Swedish and EU governments already. Even though they only got 76 votes in the last national election in 2010 and 81 votes in the general election of 2006, Direktdemokraterna is still trying to gain traction into the government. Once Direktdemokraterna is elected, the party's mandate will be used for every question using their direct democratic voting system, thus direct democracy will be adapted at a pace best suited for the voters instead of being forced upon them. As Direktdemokraterna gains popularity it hopes to abolish the party system altogether and switch to an entirely direct democracy state.

Despite the fact that their voting system elicits extreme commentary in specific factual matters, they are attempting to remain neutral as a party on all matters. They vow to never hold or support any position in issues not specifically involving how to create a more directly democratic world-political system. The party is issues based and adapts directly in response to the wishes of the members of the party. Every party member can participate in discussions leading up to elections as well as vote in them, lending as much leadership and power as possible to their members. There is a leader and executive board, due to legal demands, but they only have minimal power, solely maintaining the technical status of the electronic voting system and overseeing discussions.

Led by Executive Director, Jonas Liljegren, the party mainly works on designing, maintaining, and introducing a continuous direct-democratic voting system using an internet based voting system, coded in PHP, GPL, which previously existed and can be easily downloaded from their forum and set up by a trained programmer. This openness to the program allows members to view, manipulate and comment on the code. All decisions are decided upon by members using open voting in a phpBB-forum. Since anyone is able to be engaged using the forum, members are allowed to use aliases for anonymity, creating a more open and representative democratic environment.

The party, using their 40 volunteers, will also work on solutions for practical problems that occur online and during the use of the regular voting system. Since their voting system will only be accessible through terminals on a network, such as the internet, telephone, and ATMs, they are working on making sure that everyone can get access to such terminals and the knowledge of how to use them at a reasonable cost. The party wants libraries to be able to work as voting offices for those who do not have access to the network at home. They hope to train all librarians to use and be able to teach their electronic voting system. In order to maintain the validity of e-democracy the engineers for the party are working on developing a Dedicated Trusted Computer Voting Device that can increase the safety of e-democracy and the internet significantly.

See also

• Direct democracy
• Open source governance

References

• [1] Grassroots Political Parties in Sweden - Paper by Ovid Pacific Boyd at Electronic Government Master’s Program, Örebro University, Sweden
• [2] - a wiki information page written by Direktdemokraterna
• [3] -the English translation of Aktiv Demokrati's website
• [4] - a blog written by a major member of Direktdemokraterna introducing himself and his connection to them

External links

• (Swedish) Official party website