Decentralized Autonomous Party(DAP) May Fix The Broken Democracy

Blockchain is currently used for voting in many places and Election Commission Of India has also announced that its building a Blockchain Infrastructure for holding future elections. The success of such initiatives will trigger bigger changes like Decentralised Autonomous Parties to come into existence. Once people understand the benefits of DAP it will definitely become an alternative to the traditional party system followed everywhere.

When we look at the governance structure adopted worldwide, we can observe that government comes in many different forms ranging from Monarchy to dictatorship to democracies. Democracies are the only form where common people have some power in government decisions. But when you have a deeper look at democracies, we can see that the top leaders in the ruling party have control over decisions and not the common people.

As in the majority of industries, the stakeholders have significantly invested in current political systems. Politics is also a high stake activity for politicians as well as industrialists. So it will definitely take some time to implement innovations that are different from what we are used to.

Let's look at how a party created in lines of DAO look like and how it will shift the power from leaders back to the people.

Political landscape:

A political party is the most essential institution for running a democracy. It unifies like-minded people under an umbrella and coordinates candidates to compete in a specific country’s election. The beauty of this governance structure is that even when in opposition, parties can hold governments accountable for their deliverables to the nation.

A common belief about democratic countries is that people have a say in every major government decision. But that's a myth! People have the power to choose the representatives once in a couple of years, but once chosen, the power is in the hands of representatives or parties to make decisions on behalf of people till the term ends.

Major problems with political parties:

• Lack of internal democracy: Power remains in hands of top leaders who do not consult the ordinary members.
• Corruption: Political parties are perceived as one of the most corrupt organizations in the world. There are many reasons for a political party or its leaders becoming corrupt, but one of the leading factors is the power these political party leaders have in influencing various decisions in the country.
• Dynastic Succession: With power in hands of top leaders, the top party and government positions go to family members who may not be even qualified to hold that position.
• Money power: Every party needs money to organize meetings, demonstrations, etc., Money is usually collected by parties as donations from wealthy people. This gives wealthy business people direct access to political powers, giving them unfair advantages when the government comes to power.

A common theme in the major four problems listed above is the monopoly the party leaders are having in day to day decision-making of the party and governments. If there is more transparency and participation of the public in decision-making, the impact of the above problems can be reduced.

Decentralized Autonomous Party (DAP)

Blockchain and crypto technologies are bringing very positive changes to various sectors. With DeFi, It changed the financial sector by letting the average individual become active stakeholders of financial networks. It is giving artists and musicians more control over their work and royalties via NFTs.

Similarly, Blockchain technology has the potential of enabling true democracy at all levels of governance through Decentralized Autonomous Party (DAP).

Think of DAP as an internet-native party that’s collectively owned and managed by its members. Decisions are governed by proposals and voting to ensure everyone in the party has a voice.

They have built-in treasuries that no one has the authority to access without the approval of the group.

No party leader can authorize decisions based on their own whims. Everything will be out in the open and the rules around policies and governance will be baked into the DAP via its code.

DAPs are an effective and safe way to work with like-minded folks and build a true democracy.

Comparison between DAP and a traditional party:

DAP membership

Different models can be utilized for a DAP membership. This is similar to DAO where membership can determine how voting works and other key parts of the DAP.

• 1–1 membership:?This model gives every member who joins the party one token or voting right.
• Share-based membership: In this model, any prospective members can submit a proposal to join the DAP, usually offering a tribute of some value in the form of tokens or work. Shares represent direct voting power and ownership.

How DAP works:

DAP is fully virtualized through software. To be fully operational DAP needs a set of rules according to which it will operate. These rules are encoded as a smart contract (a computer program) that autonomously exists on the internet. At the same time, it will need people to perform tasks that it can’t do by itself.

The backbone of a DAP is its smart contract. The contract defines the rules of the party and holds the group’s treasury.

Once the contract is live on a blockchain, no one can change the rules except by a vote.

Rules and logic embedded in the contract will determine what actions can and cannot be taken by its members.

The finance part of the DAP will also be handled by the smart contract too, which means no one can spend or take out the money without the group’s approval or knowledge.

All this points to the fact that DAP doesn’t require a central authority or leader. The party makes all the decisions collectively and decisions and payments are authorized automatically when votes pass.

Smart contracts are tamper-proof once they go live on the blockchain. No one would be able to edit the code (the DAPs rules) without people noticing because everything is public. This is what brings trust to DAP.

Technology landscape

Skeptics of blockchain technology argue that it is not sustainable or efficient for mass adoption. But the infrastructure and technical prowess required to create and run decentralized parties are currently available. The number of DAO’s is increasing day by day, which points to how much trust people have in smart contracts.