3. A pilot project to validate our process

Some people suggest that we should start with a town as a pilot program. But what would that prove? And, it would be too expensive for most towns. We could start with one state, but that would take the same effort as it would for the federal government and it would expend our time, energy, and resources. It would be as if the American colonists had decided to declare one colony as independent as a test case to see if it would be acceptable to Great Britain.

Starting at a smaller scale would only give the power elite and political parties more time to develop ways to prevent us from establishing our Collaborative Democracy. Those who profit from the current ruling process would be threatened and would resist. The longer it takes to change our country's governance processes, the harder it will be. We must give it everything we have now at the federal level. As people experience it and get used to it, it will filter down to the states.

An effective pilot program

Large projects such as this carry less risk if they are validated through a pilot program. National, state, and city governments have used Polis. It was successful in Taiwan as a test case for discussion of issues. However, Polis was simply a survey tool that was used to gather responses to a single survey question. It was not a solution process. However, it did give those who participated a collective voice and they worked together to come to a consensus.

While the statement concept behind Polis provides a core function used throughout our process, our process is designed specifically to solve issues through maximizing the benefits of collective intelligence.

Federal councils are already proven as they are used throughout our government now. However, no truly democratic process currently exists. To prove the effectiveness of our web-based democratic solution process, we do not need to implement it in a government organization. The pilot simply needs to demonstrate that the people could develop solutions and make governing decisions regarding those solutions. At the end of our process, our pilot solutions would be verified by the consensus vote of the participants. The participation and consensus vote by the people would be the validation that the process was effective, regardless of whether the participants approved every solution or the government chose to implement it.

For example, in 2009 the people of Iceland drafted a new constitution by means of holding truly democratic meetings throughout the country. In 2012, over 66% of the electorate voted to adopt the new constitution in a non-binding referendum that their government ignored. [5] Regardless, the people proved that they could successfully develop a better constitution through a truly democratic process and validated it by a strong consensus. The non-cooperation of the government was irrelevant. It demonstrated the failure of the government politicians to represent and serve the people. It did not negate the consensus vote by the people nor invalidate the democratic process used.

Our pilot program

We are implementing a prototype Citizen Governance Website that incorporates our democratic solution process as explained in this book. This pilot website will validate our process and allow you to understand how the process works by participating and by experiencing it yourself. You can find out more on our website at:

EndPoliticsNow.com/solution.