Liquid Democracy
A governance model letting participants either vote directly on a proposal or delegate their vote to someone else they trust, with the flexibility to switch between the two at any time.
Liquid democracy is a governance model that blends direct democracy and representative democracy, letting each participant choose, on any given proposal, whether to vote directly themselves or delegate their voting power to a chosen delegate (see Kaavon's "Delegate" glossary definition) they trust to vote on their behalf. Unlike a fixed representative system, a participant can switch their delegation or reclaim their vote at any time, and delegation can often be set per-proposal-category rather than as one blanket choice across all decisions.
This model aims to capture benefits from both ends of the governance spectrum: it preserves the option for direct participation on issues a holder cares deeply about, while letting less engaged holders delegate to someone more informed rather than simply not voting at all, which can improve overall participation and informed decision-making compared to a system offering only a rigid binary choice between direct voting and abstention. In practice, liquid democracy systems often still see voting power concentrate among a relatively small number of highly trusted or highly visible delegates, echoing some of the same concentration dynamics seen in other delegated governance models.
Examples
- A token holder uninterested in reviewing every individual proposal might delegate their voting power under a liquid democracy system to a delegate who actively researches and votes on each one.
- Liquid democracy's flexibility to delegate by proposal category and switch delegates at any time distinguishes it from a fixed representative system where a delegate's authority can't easily be revoked or narrowed.