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The Delegate Pyramids

The two Delegate Pyramids are structures of (mostly) indirectly elected recallable delegates. The pinnacle of each Delegate Pyramid is a Delegate Commission, and the two Delegate Commissions together form one of the three legislative chambers.

Constituencies

The base of a Delegate Pyramid, "level 0", is composed of voters, who group themselves into "constituencies". A constituency is a group of people. Higher levels of the pyramid are composed of delegates from the next lowest level. These delegates form themselves into constituencies.

Each constituency has a minimum size. Any group of people who number at least the minimum size may form a new constituency. A person may leave constituencies, or switch constituencies, at any time. A person may be a member of only one constituency per level at a time. People may only join an existing constituency with its permission, according to whatever rules it has set for the acceptance of new members. Each constituency elects a single delegate to represent it in the next higher level of the Delegate Pyramid.

Since members may switch out of a constituency at any time, it is possible that the number of members for a constituency could fall below the minimum number. In this case, the constituency's delegate loses their office as a delegate, unless and until their constituency regains the minimum size.

Members who switch constituencies may not cast a vote in their new constituency for the election of a delegate until at least one electoral cycle duration has elapsed since the last time they cast a vote in any other constituency for the election of a delegate (or, if they have never cast such a vote in any other constituency, then they may vote immediately).

If some voters hold multiple votes, then they may participate in multiple constituencies by pledging some of their votes to one constituencies, and others to other constituencies. For voters who have only one vote, that vote is considered "pledged" to the constituency joined by that voter. The "size" of a constituency refers to how many votes are pledged to it.

Although base-level voters may spread out their multiple votes, delegates must pledge all of their votes to a single constituency, however, and must cast all of them at the same time during deliberation within the constituency.

The proceedings of a constituency (aside from the Delegate Commission) are private and closed, although the adopted resolutions of the assembly, for example the identity of the chosen delegate, are public. The membership roles of each constituency are public.

Primary and external delegate pyramids

There are two separate, parallel delegate pyramids, primary and external (see division between internal and external functions). Each voter's vote counts once in the primary delegate pyramid and once in the external delegate pyramid. The two pyramids culminate in the primary delegate commission and the external delegate commission.

Electing a delegate

Any member of the constituency may declare that they are a candidate in the election for a delegate. No other form of nomination besides self-nomination is permitted. Only members of the constituency may be candidates. A person is ineligble to be a candidate delegate of a constituency if they have not participated in a council that cast at least one vote in the past electoral cycle duration; unless they applied to be in a council, with no offline restriction, but were not placed; or unless less than P people in their constituency currently meet this criterion (with P as defined in [1]).

In a replacement election, the incumbent is automatically a candidate, without nomination, so the previous requirement about serving on a successful council does not apply to the incumbent for the purpose of a replacement election. Similarly, if a person is elected delegate, and then elected delegate in a higher constituency, and then replaced in the lower constituency, they may remain delegate in the higher constituency, and may remain a choice in a replacement election, even though they could not ordinarily be nominated in the higher constiuency, no longer being a member.

See the procedure for electing a recallable delegate.

Let m = floor((# of layers in the delegate pyramid)*2/3). In layers which are <= layer m, the meetings of each constituency are private, and its votes are by secret ballot (although a list of adopted resolutions are public). In layers which are > layer m, votes are public and final votes are by roll call, and meetings are public unless closed by a 2/3s vote.

Constituencies are forbidden to bind the way their rep votes (although they can pass nonbinding resolutions advising them how to vote, and they can threaten to (or decide to) recall them otherwise, and then do so).

Strength of a delegate

The number of votes held by a delegate is called their "strength". A delegate's strength determines how many votes they may pledge to constituencies in the next higher level, and also how many votes they may cast in every vote held in those constituencies.

The strength of a delegate is the number of votes pledged in the constituency that elected them, except that there is a cutoff associated with the level of the constituency that elected them. If the number of votes pledged in the constituency that elected them exceeds the cutoff, then their strength is only the amount of the cutoff.

The strength cutoff for a constituency on Level X shall be (L - X) * (minimum size of a level X constituency), where L is the level of the Delegate Pyramid which is the Delegate Commission. Note that, since L - (L-1) = 1, the cutoff for commissioners in the Delegate Commission is equal to the minimum size of a level (L-1) constituency; so, the maximum and minimum strength of commissioners in the Delegate Commission are equal. Therefore, all commissioners in the Delegate Commission have equal strength.

Existence of the Delegate Pyramids

The Delegate Pyramids are not used for small groups.

When

makeOdd(floor(sqrt(n))) <= P

where n, makeOdd, and P are defined as in [2], the Delegate Pyramids are not used/do not exist.

In this case, when some role is given to both the Elect Commissions and the Delegate Pyramids, then the Elect Commissions alone fulfill that role.

How many layers are in the Delegate Pyramids?

The number of layers, including Layer 0 and the top layer which contains the delegate commission, is floor(sqrt(log(n))), where n is the effective group size.

Note that the level of the delegate commission layer is (# of layers) - 1, because the bottom layer is Layer 0.

Minimum sizes

First, let k = (log(n)/log(groupSz) - 1 - layers + 1)/sum(1:(layers-1)) (this is written in MATLAB notation; in latex notation, sum(1:(layers-1)) would be written (\sum_{i=1}^{layers-1} i) )

where n is the effective group size, groupSz is the number of members in the primary elect commission (for the primary delegate pyramid), or the number of members in the external elect commission (for the external delegate pyramid) (see [3]), and layers is the number of layers in the delegate pyramid, as determined above.

Now, for the layer numbered L, the minimum size of the constituencies on that layer are:

floor(groupSz.^(1+k*(layers - 1 - L)))

(again using matlab notation; using latex, it is floor(groupSz^{1+k*(layers - 1 - L)}))

Preventing a circular flow of power

No organization, including a faction/party organization, may exert control over a constituency. No organization other than the constituency itself may exercise the power to nominate, to veto, to select, or to recall, the delegate of that constituency.

In particular, Officials may not recommend people to constituencies for the office of delegate. Higher levels of a delegate pyramid may not exert any political control over lower levels.

Open debate between members shall not be prohibited within any constituency.

Money and constituencies

Constituencies are forbidden from spending money or resources on anything except (a) their own operations, (b) advertising to attract new members, (c) coordinating sub-constituencies, and (d) paying a salary to their delegate or his or her staff. Specifically, they may not spend money on advertisments which intend to persuade other people to adopt a point of view, and they may not transfer money to other entities which influence policy.

The organization may allocate money for these purposes to constituencies. An equal amount of money must be given to each constituency on the same level. The sum of the money given to all constituencies on some level X may not be greater than the sum of the money given to all constituencies on the next lowest level.

Constituencies may not raise money themselves; all of the money must come from the organization.

An exception is that goods and services regarding a constituency's meetings and member communications may be donated. For instance, someone could donate a space to hold meetings in, or someone could create and maintain a website and email list for members to converse.

If a constituency decides to use software or machines to conduct official constituency business, then they must satisfy the requirements for voting machines.

Terminology

If a voter has a vote which is pledged to a constituency, and there is currently a delegate who is representing that constituency, then that delegate is said to be the direct representative of the voter, and that voter is said to be a direct constituent of that delegate, and that vote is said to support that delegate.

If a delegate A is a representative of another delegate B, and B is a representative of a person C, then A is said to be an indirect representative of C, and C is said to be an indirect constituent of A, and the votes of C which support B are said to support A.

A person who is either a direct or indirect representative of another person is also said to be their representative, and a person who is either a direct or indirect constituent of another person is also said to be their constituent.

No mass campaigning

Delegates are responsible only to their direct constituents. Delegates are forbidden from campaigning to attract the votes or loyalties of indirect constituents.