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Fluid Democracy is a governance system, that is to say, it is a blueprint for a set of roles, and rules for how those roles interact, that allow a group to efficiently make decisions. It is in the same space as the U.S. Constitution, or the Bylaws for a corporation, and in fact it is formalized as a set of Bylaws that may be used by groups. It is intended for use in groups of any type and any size, from small to large, from informal open projects to corporations to governments.
We call a group within the group, like a committee, a "body". The whole group is also called a body when acting according to certain rules.
We will call a proposal that is accepted by the group an "Act".
When multiple bodies must agree in order for a proposal to become an Act, then a proposal which one body has accepted is called a Resolution (a Resolution may or may not become an Act, depending on what the other bodies decide).
Some groups may want to give each member an equal vote, but others may want to give some members more votes than others. Fluid Democracy works for both of these cases.
My recommendation is that groups which are completely optional and voluntary (such as open projects) use unequal votes. The reason is that often some people in such groups are thought to be more knowledgable, and more involved with the project, than others; better decisions may result if those people have more power.
If you are going to give some people more voting power than others, I recommend that you use the PieTrust system for deciding how much voting power to give each member.
Fluid Democracy has different sets of rules for different sizes of groups. The rules are simple for small groups, and get more complex as the group gets larger. The rules themselves tell you when to change over.
This allows a group to start using the Fluid Democracy rules immediately when they are small, without strangling in bureaucracy, but while being confident that the rules will provide more structure as needed if and when the group grows.
There are three group sizes; Small, Medium, and Large. In groups which give each member one vote, the size is measured in the number of members. In this case, Small means 2 thru 8 people, Medium means 9 thru 55, and Large means 56 or more.
In groups which give different voting power to different members, a formula called "effective size" is used, which allows a group to stay in a small size category whenever there is small number of members who hold most of the votes, even if the total number of members is large.
I'll describe the rules for each group size in turn.
Small groups have one body, the Forum, and one official, the Chair.
The Forum is a way for members to make proposals and vote on them. All group members can participate in the Forum. It consists of a bulletin board to which any member can post a proposal. Other members can drop by and write "yes" or "no" or "still deciding" below a proposal, and if the proposal gets enough yeses then is passes. Members can also delegate their voting power to other members using proxies.
The Chair leads the group, administers the procedural rules, and serves as chief executive officer. The Chair is elected periodically for a fixed term.
The group can create other officer positions if it feels they are needed.
Officers, including the Chair, are elected using a system called "range voting", which means that each person rates each candidate as Like (+1), Neutral (0), Dislike (-1), or No Opinion, and then the ratings for each candidate are summed.
Members vote directly on the issues in the Forum, and they also elect a Chair.
For medium-sized groups, there are three bodies, the Forum, the Board of Directors, and the External Affairs Committee, and three standalone officials, the Chair, the CEO, and the EEO.
The Forum is the same as for small groups.
The Board of Directors consists of 3 to 7 elected Directors. Like the Forum, the Directors can make proposals, debate them, and vote on them. The Board is elected using a variant of range voting which ensures that the Directors will be a diverse, representative sample of the entire group.
1 to 3 members of the Board of Directors also sit on the External Affairs Committee. External affairs is defined as relationships between the organization and other entities. Matters of external affairs are only discussed and voted on by the External Affairs Committee, not by the whole Board of Directors. The decision of the External Affairs Committee is taken as a decision of the whole Board in matters of external affairs. When electing the Directors, members also rate the suitability of each candidate for external affairs, and these ratings determine which Directors will sit on the External Affairs Committee.
When either the Forum or the Board of Directors passes a proposal ("passes a resolution"), the other body has a chance to veto it. If there is no veto, the proposal becomes an Act. If there is a veto, the proposal fails.
The Chair still leads the group and administers the procedural rules, but the role of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is separated into a new role. In Medium groups, the same person is allowed to hold both the offices of Chair and CEO. However, the Chair may not also be a Director. The Chair runs meetings of the Board of Directors, but, not being a Director, the Chair does not get to vote in these meetings.
The CEO is appointed by the Board of Directors and may be replaced by them at any time. The CEO implements the Acts of the organization.
The External Executive Officer (EEO) is like the CEO except that the EEO handles external affairs. The EEO is appointed by the External Affairs Committee. The CEO is not the boss of the EEO; the EEO handles external affairs, and the CEO handles everything else. The same person is allowed to hold both the offices of CEO and EEO.
Members vote directly on the issues in the Forum, and they also elect a Chair, and a Board of Directors.
The Board selects a CEO, and the External Affairs Committee (made up of Directors) selects an EEO.
The Board votes on the issues. The Forum and the Board can veto each other, but otherwise operate independently and they can each pass proposals. The Chair runs meetings and administers the procedure, the EEO executes the Acts of the group with respect to External Affairs, and the CEO handles everything else.
For large-sized groups, there are six bodies, the Forum, the Elect Board, the External Affairs Committee, the Delegate Board, the Court, the Parliamentariat, plus a large number of a new type of body, the "council". There are also four types of standalone officials, Chairs, the CEO, the EEO, and other "executives".
The Forum is the same as for small and medium groups; except that the rules of procedure for Forum discussions now incorporate mechanisms for agenda-setting.
The Board of Directors, with 7 elected Directors, is renamed the Elect Board, and is otherwise as in Medium groups.
The External Affairs Committee, with 3 of the Directors from the Elect Board, is the same as in Medium groups.
The Delegate Board consists of up to 7 delegate Directors, and has powers identical to the Elect Board, but its composition is different. Members may organize themselves into constituencies. A member may choose which, if any, constituency to join. Each constituency select a delegate who sits on the Delegate Board. For very large groups, the delegates form their own constituencies which select their own second-order delegates, and so on, until the delegates of the top level become the Delegate Board.
When one of the Forum, the Board of Directors, or the Delegate Board passes a Resolution, any of the others can veto it. If a Resolution is vetoed, it fails unless the third body chooses to pass the Act.
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the Bylaws provide three more structures. The Board of Directors is split into two parts; a Board composed of 7 elected Directors, like before, and a new Board composed of (up to 7) delegate Directors. The former is referred to as the Elect Board, and the latter as the Delegate Board. Another new structure is the Councils, which are discussion groups made up of ordinary members. Third, the CEO no longer acts directly, but rather acts through an Executive Team, whose members are confirmed by the Board. Optionally, any group may appoint Parliamentarians to run meetings and Judges to settle disputes. In addition, there are three chairs instead of just one, and there are a few other changes.
The Delegate Board has a role identical to the Elect Board, but a different composition. Each Board separately meets and separately originates proposals, debates them, and votes on them.
The Delegate Board and the Elect Board act as one body, called the Combined Board, for the purpose of selecting officiers. The Combined Board selects the CEO and EEO, and confirms executive nominees. The Combined Board does not serve any other function.
Delegates are chosen by constituencies, which are blocs of members who organize in order to select a delegate. A member may only be in one constituency at a time. A member may leave their constituency at any time, and may join a new one with the consent of 2/3 of the other members in that constituency; although members who switch after voting in their previous constituency may not vote again in their new constituency until at least one electoral cycle duration has elapsed.
Constituencies select a delegate by range voting. Constituencies may recall and replace their delegate with a new one at any time by range voting. It is forbidden for any member outside of a constituency to control a constituency's choice of delegate, to lobby for a delegate, or to assist a delegate to campaign.
The members of a constituency are called supporters of their delegate.
In groups with an effective size over 393, there is an intermediate layer of delegates in between the members and the Delegate Board. The Bylaws specify a threshold of support which a member must accumulate in order to become an intermediate delegate. The Delegate Directors must in turn accumulate a certain threshold of support, not from the members in general, but from the intermediate delegates.
In groups with an effective size over 117649, there are two intermediate layers of delegates.
In groups with an effective size over 282475249, there are three intermediate layers of delegates.
All three of the Forum, the Elect Board, and the Delegate Board may separately make proposals, debate, and vote on them. Any resolution passed by one of these may be vetoed by either of the other two; if it is not vetoed, it becomes an Act. If it is passed by one of these bodies, and then vetoed by a second one, then it passes only if it is passed by the third one.
For example, if the Forum passes a proposal and the Delegate Board vetos it, then the proposal fails unless the Elect Board also passes it.
The External Affairs Committee represents the Elect Board in matters of external affairs. By contrast, the entire Delegate Board may vote on all matters.
A council is a body of members whose size is the number of Directors on the Delegate Board. Each council consists of one (possibly indirect) supporter for each Delegate Director.
Each councils is treated as if it were a single individual in the Forum. A council may take action only when there is a consensus among all members of the council. When there is consensus, a council may create proposals, place tokens on them, vote on them, etc, just like an individual can do in the Forum. 1/3 of the Forum votes are reserved for the councils and divided up between them. When a council votes in the Forum, all individuals making up the council automatically cast their vote the same way the council does.
Service on councils is voluntary. Any member (who is a direct or indirect supporter of a member of the Delegate Board) can request to be placed on a council. Each member may only be a member of one council at a time. If a member leaves a council, they cannot join another Council for a specified period of time.
As many councils are created as can be, satisfying the above constraints; that is to say, when a member requests to be placed on a council, this request is granted provided that they have not just left another council, and that there are members who are constituents of each other Delegate Directors who are also waiting to join a council.
No individual is eligible to stand for election as a Director, or to become a delegate, unless they attempted to serve on a council for the past electoral cycle, and usually attended the council if they were placed.
If there are intermediate layers of delegates, each layer has its own set of councils, and delegates in this layer who are placed on a council are placed on one of their layer's councils. The 1/3 of Forum votes reserved for the Councils is divided evenly between the layers, and then divided evenly between the councils in each layer.
The CEO cannot act directly, but must act thru an Executive Team. Executive roles ("portfolios") are created by the Board of Directors, and there must be at least three portfolios. Executives are nominated by the CEO, and confirmed by a vote of at least 2/5 of the Combined Board. The CEO can remove an Executive serving under them at any time (provided there is more than one Executive under them), and can reassign their portfolio to any other Executive who has been confirmed by the Board. There can never be more than 7 Executives. When the effective group size is smaller than 49, the organization can choose to force the CEO to act thru an Executive Team but does not have to. The organization can create an External Affairs Executive Team and force the EEO to act thru them, but does not have to.
The need for the CEO to act thru the Executive Team (and for the creation of the Executive Team) can be waived by a vote of 5/7 by the Combined Board. This waiver may be recinded at any time by a standard Act and must be renewed after each Elect Board election.
Optionally, the Directors can decide to split up the role of the Chair by way of appointing up to 5 Judges and/or 5 Parliamentarians. Parliamentarians administer the Bylaws and moderate discussion, running Board meetings and moderating the Forum. Judges interpret the Bylaws and Acts in case of a dispute (except for disputes relating to the moderation of discussion, which are interpreted by the Parliamentarians). When there are less than 3 Judges or less than 3 Parliamentarians, the Chair also serves these roles.
In large groups, there are three Chairs instead of just one. The Chairs are elected in a staggered fashion, not all at once.
When there are less than 3 Judges or less than 3 Parliamentarians, the Chairs fill in for these roles.
Even when there are Judges or Parliamentarians, the Chairs retains the role of overseers, making sure that the Bylaws are followed and the rights of the members are protected.
Each chair individually holds the powers to:
Any two Chairs acting together may pardon or commute sentences the sentence of any member convicted by the organization.
Additionally, the middle Chair and the seniormost Chair have special roles.
The middle Chair advises members, takes member complaints, and attempts to mediate disputes.
The seniormost Chair is the highest-ranking official in the organization and in addition to the above has the power to:
There are term limits for Chairs, Directors, Judges and Parliamentarians.
The Chairs, the CEO, and the EEO must all be different people.
Discussion and voting in the Forum is governed by a new set of rules that includes agenda-setting procedures in order to prevent too many proposals from being discussed at once.
Some groups may want to give each member an equal vote, but others may want to give some members more votes than others. Fluid Democracy works for both of these cases.
My recommendation is that groups which are completely optional and voluntary (such as open projects) use unequal votes, and that groups for which membership is sort of obligatory, such as governments, unions, and professional licensing associations, use one-person-one-vote.
Fluid Democracy doesn't tell you how to decide how many votes to give each person if you use unequal votes, but I recommend that you use the PieTrust system for this.
No member may spend more than a trivial amount of money campaigning.
There is a "text limit" that limits the volume of text that may be passed in Acts per day by a legislative body. Also, there is a minimum "reading time" per volume of text that must elapse after the introduction of a proposal and before it is voted upon.
Fluid Democracy has different sets of rules for different sizes of groups. The rules are simple for small groups, and get more complex as the group gets larger. The rules themselves tell you when to change over. This allows a group to start using the Fluid Democracy rules immediately when they are small, without strangling in bureaucracy, but while being confident that the rules will provide more structure as needed if and when the group grows.
In groups in which each member has one vote, the size of a group is just the number of voters. In groups in which members have unequal voting power, the size of a group is measured using a formula called "effective size", defined as: two times the smallest number of members who would form a majority if they voted together. Effective size is never greater than the number of members in the group, but is sometimes less. For example, if there were 100 people in the group, and six members each have 10% of the votes, then the effective size is only 12, because if those six members banded together they would have a majority.
The reason for using effective size is to avoid saddling a group with a lot of bureaucracy when decision could be made less formally by a small number of people.
In Fluid Democracy, groups are either Small (effective size of 2 thru 8), Medium (effective size 9 thru 55), or Large (56+). When a group grows, it switches to the rules for its new size just before the next election. I'll describe the rules for each group size in turn.
For small groups (effective size of 8 or less), the Bylaws provide two structures, a Forum, which is a way for members to make proposals and vote on them, and a Chair, who is an elected official.
The Forum consists of a bulletin board to which any member can post a proposal. Other members can drop by and write "yes" or "no" or "still deciding" below a proposal, and if the proposal gets 3/5 yeses then it passes (3/5 is the default, but some types of proposals, such as renewals of a budget, only need a little over 50%; others, such as amending the bylaws, need 2/3). Members can also delegate their voting power to other members using proxies.
In small groups, the Chair leads the group, administers the procedural rules, and serves as chief executive officer. The group can create other officer positions if it feels they are needed. The Chair is elected periodically for a fixed term.
Officers, including the Chair, are elected using a system called "range voting", which is superior to the more common plurality voting in a number of ways (for example, it is impossible for any candidate to be a "spoiler" in range voting). Range voting is simple: each person rates each candidate as Like (+1), Neutral (0), Dislike (-1), or No Opinion, and then the ratings for each candidate are summed. The candidate with the highest summed score wins, except that candidates for which an especially large number of voters said "No Opinion" can't win.
For medium-sized groups (effective size 9 thru 55), the Bylaws provide three more structures: an elected board of directors, a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) who may be separate from the Chair, and an External Executive Officer (EEO), who handles external affairs.
In medium-sized groups, the Forum still exists, but in addition, there is also an elected Board of Directors. The number of Directors varies with the effective size of the group:
| effective group size | number of elected directors | ||||
| < 9 | none | ||||
| 9-24 | 3 | ||||
| 25-48 | 5 | ||||
| 49+ | 7 |
The Directors are periodically elected using a voting system called "reweighted range voting", which is an extension of range voting that is better when there are multiple seats up for election. Reweighted Range Voting is a "proportional representation" voting system, which ensures that the Directors will be a diverse, representative sample of the entire group. (sidebar todo: reweighted range voting is a PR system; example of reweighted range voting). Board elections occur periodically, but an early election can be called by a vote in the Forum.
Both the Forum and the Board can make proposals and vote on them. The required voting thresholds are the same in each case (3/5 by default). If a proposal passes in either the Forum or the Board, it is called a "Resolution". In this case, the other one (the Board or the Forum, respectively) has a chance to veto the proposal. If a proposal passes one of them and is not vetoed by the other one, then it passes overall, and is called an Act.
In addition to making and voting on proposals, the Board appoints at least two officers, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), and the External Executive Officer (EEO). The EEO handles external affairs, and the CEO handles everything else. The CEO and the EEO may be replaced by the Board at any time. The CEO is not the boss of the EEO; the EEO has primacy within the domain of external affairs. The same person may or may not be appointed to both of these roles, and may or may not be the same person as the Chair.
The EEO is not appointed by the full board, but rather by a subboard, the External Affairs Committee, which is composed of a small number of people from the elected Board of Directors (1 boardmember for groups of effective size 9-48; 3 boardmembers for groups of effective size 49+). When the Board of Directors is elected, the members also rate each candidate for their suitability for external affairs, and these ratings determine which of the Directors will sit of the External Affairs Committee. The reason for this is that it is common that some people are well-suited for making decisions about most of an organization's business, but ill-suited for making decisions about external affairs; separating external affairs into an EEO, appointed by an External Affairs Committee, allows members to separately vote on whether each candidate would be a good Director in general, and whether they would be good for external affairs.
The External Affairs Committee may also make or vote on proposals pertaining to external affairs. The full Board may not make or vote on such proposals.
The Chair is not a Director and does not have have a vote on the Board, and no person may simultaineously hold the offices of Chair and Director. However, the Chair does run Board meetings (without the Chair casting a vote). The Chair also interpret the Bylaws (although the Bylaws may be amended against the will of the Chair), mediate disputes, and oversee the organization (the organization must disclose any information to the Chair that the Chair requests). The Chair may participate in the Forum like any other member. The Chair is the highest-ranking and most prestigious office, and the Chair formally represents the organization when a formal representative is called for.
Decisions of the Chair regarding the running of Board meetings may be overturned by a 5/7 vote of the Board. Other decisions of the Chair may be overturned by an Act (except that the Chair may not be denied information which he or she requests).
For large-sized groups (effective size 56+), the Bylaws provide three more structures. The Board of Directors is split into two parts; a Board composed of 7 elected Directors, like before, and a new Board composed of (up to 7) delegate Directors. The former is referred to as the Elect Board, and the latter as the Delegate Board. Another new structure is the Councils, which are discussion groups made up of ordinary members. Third, the CEO no longer acts directly, but rather acts through an Executive Team, whose members are confirmed by the Board. Optionally, any group may appoint Parliamentarians to run meetings and Judges to settle disputes. In addition, there are three chairs instead of just one, and there are a few other changes.
The Delegate Board has a role identical to the Elect Board, but a different composition. Each Board separately meets and separately originates proposals, debates them, and votes on them.
The Delegate Board and the Elect Board act as one body, called the Combined Board, for the purpose of selecting officers. The Combined Board selects the CEO and EEO, confirms executive nominees, and appoints Judges and Parliamentarians and possibly other officials to roles particular to the group. The Combined Board does not serve any other function.
Delegates are chosen by constituencies, which are blocs of members who organize in order to select a delegate. A member may only be in one constituency at a time. A member may leave their constituency at any time, and may join a new one with the consent of 2/3 of the other members in that constituency; although members who switch after voting in their previous constituency may not vote again in their new constituency until at least one electoral cycle duration has elapsed.
Constituencies select a delegate by range voting. Constituencies may recall and replace their delegate with a new one at any time by range voting. It is forbidden for any member outside of a constituency to control a constituency's choice of delegate, to lobby for a delegate, or to assist a delegate to campaign.
The members of a constituency are called supporters of their delegate.
In groups with an effective size over 393, there is an intermediate layer of delegates in between the members and the Delegate Board. The Bylaws specify a threshold of support which a member must accumulate in order to become an intermediate delegate. The Delegate Directors must in turn accumulate a certain threshold of support, not from the members in general, but from the intermediate delegates.
In groups with an effective size over 117649, there are two intermediate layers of delegates.
In groups with an effective size over 282475249, there are three intermediate layers of delegates.
All three of the Forum, the Elect Board, and the Delegate Board may separately make proposals, debate, and vote on them. Any resolution passed by one of these may be vetoed by either of the other two; if it is not vetoed, it becomes an Act. If it is passed by one of these bodies, and then vetoed by a second one, then it passes only if it is passed by the third one.
For example, if the Forum passes a proposal and the Delegate Board vetos it, then the proposal fails unless the Elect Board also passes it.
The External Affairs Committee represents the Elect Board in matters of external affairs. By contrast, the entire Delegate Board may vote on all matters.
A council is a body of members whose size is the number of Directors on the Delegate Board. Each council consists of one (possibly indirect) supporter for each Delegate Director.
Each councils is treated as if it were a single individual in the Forum. A council may take action only when there is a consensus among all members of the council. When there is consensus, a council may create proposals, place tokens on them, vote on them, etc, just like an individual can do in the Forum. 1/3 of the Forum votes are reserved for the councils and divided up between them. When a council votes in the Forum, all individuals making up the council automatically cast their vote the same way the council does.
Service on councils is voluntary. Any member (who is a direct or indirect supporter of a member of the Delegate Board) can request to be placed on a council. Each member may only be a member of one council at a time. If a member leaves a council, they cannot join another Council for a specified period of time.
As many councils are created as can be, satisfying the above constraints; that is to say, when a member requests to be placed on a council, this request is granted provided that they have not just left another council, and that there are members who are constituents of each other Delegate Directors who are also waiting to join a council.
No individual is eligible to stand for election as a Director, or to become a delegate, unless they attempted to serve on a council for the past electoral cycle, and usually attended the council if they were placed.
If there are intermediate layers of delegates, each layer has its own set of councils, and delegates in this layer who are placed on a council are placed on one of their layer's councils. The 1/3 of Forum votes reserved for the Councils is divided evenly between the layers, and then divided evenly between the councils in each layer.
The CEO cannot act directly, but must act thru an Executive Team. Executive roles ("portfolios") are created by the Board of Directors, and there must be at least three portfolios. Executives are nominated by the CEO, and confirmed by a vote of at least 2/5 of the Combined Board. The CEO can remove an Executive serving under them at any time (provided there is more than one Executive under them), and can reassign their portfolio to any other Executive who has been confirmed by the Board. There can never be more than 7 Executives. When the effective group size is smaller than 49, the organization can choose to force the CEO to act thru an Executive Team but does not have to. The organization can create an External Affairs Executive Team and force the EEO to act thru them, but does not have to.
The need for the CEO to act thru the Executive Team (and for the creation of the Executive Team) can be waived by a vote of 5/7 by the Combined Board. This waiver may be recinded at any time by a standard Act and must be renewed after each Elect Board election.
Optionally, the Directors can decide to split up the role of the Chair by way of appointing up to 5 Judges and/or 5 Parliamentarians. Parliamentarians administer the Bylaws and moderate discussion, running Board meetings and moderating the Forum. Judges interpret the Bylaws and Acts in case of a dispute (except for disputes relating to the moderation of discussion, which are interpreted by the Parliamentarians). When there are less than 3 Judges or less than 3 Parliamentarians, the Chair also serves these roles.
In large groups, there are three Chairs instead of just one. The Chairs are elected in a staggered fashion, not all at once.
When there are less than 3 Judges or less than 3 Parliamentarians, the Chairs fill in for these roles.
Even when there are Judges or Parliamentarians, the Chairs retains the role of overseers, making sure that the Bylaws are followed and the rights of the members are protected.
Each chair individually holds the powers to:
Any two Chairs acting together may pardon or commute sentences the sentence of any member convicted by the organization.
Additionally, the middle Chair and the seniormost Chair have special roles.
The middle Chair advises members, takes member complaints, and attempts to mediate disputes.
The seniormost Chair is the highest-ranking official in the organization and in addition to the above has the power to:
There are term limits for Chairs, Directors, Judges and Parliamentarians.
The Chairs, the CEO, and the EEO must all be different people.
Discussion and voting in the Forum is governed by a new set of rules that includes agenda-setting procedures in order to prevent too many proposals from being discussed at once. Members can place tokens on a proposal in order to indicate that they think it should be discussed.
