See Also: Demcos in an Arcology

See Also: Startups

See Also: Democratic Corporations Overview in YouTube

An arcology would use the structure of the Democratic Corporation (Demcos) for the city government, so there would be one demco that would run the arcology, and every resident would be a member. Under its jurisdiction, there would also be smaller demcos, representing worker-owned free-enterprise corporations.

Basic Description

  • A type of worker-owned corporation.
  • Each worker, regardless of rank, has one vote, using the Proxy Voting System
  • The corporation has a body of laws (passed resolutions), including a constitution.
    • A new corporation will start with a default constitution and body of laws, and can then proceed to alter them by passing resolutions.
  • Importantly, a democratic corporation has no shares. Much like a country doesn’t have shares, only citizens.
  • Any worker can propose a resolution, which remains active for a set period of time. At the end of that period it passes if it has accumulated enough positive votes.
  • The company is composed of several bodies
    • The workers, who each have one vote, regardless of role or rank. 
    • The board of directors: a fixed number of workers who at any moment hold the greatest amount of proxy power.
    • The executive: the CEO and the officers of the company
    • The judicial: the body responsible for enforcing the company’s laws and judging transgressions.
  • All bodies must conform to the companies constitution and laws
  • The workers
    • Any employee of the company.
    • Is a member of the companies hierarchy rooted in the executive, and gets day-to-day direction that way, but also participates in the proxy-voting system with one vote.
    • Can be hired or fired in the conventional way
    • Workers can be hired or fired according to the company’s specific regulations, as with any normal corporation.
  • The board of directors 
    • Represents the workers of the company, its will and its conscience. analogous to a parliament, or legislative branch of government.
    • The board is responsible to the workers
    • The board oversees the executive.
    • If a non-board-member can sustain proxy power greater than that of the weakest board member, for a predetermined length of time (1 month, for example), then she gets to claim the seat of the weakest member.
    • When then board meets and has quorum, they can propose and pass resolutions in real-time. Such a resolution passes if it receives a sufficiently positive ratio of the total proxy power represented by the whole board (which might not be the same as all the voting power of the whole company)
      • Necessary because some decisions must be taken in real time. 
  • The Executive
    • A classic corporate hierarchy with a CEO and officers, on down to the common worker.
  • The Judicial
    • The constitution will specify which body appoints members of the judiciary and the length of their terms
    • Must operate with independence.
    • Plays same role as a judicial branch in a national democracy

Notes

  • A democratic corporation competes in the marketplace like any other company. 
  • It maintains its own books, has its own finances, can make a profit and can go bankrupt.

general notes

  • Since DCs don’t have shares, the capital wealth of a company cannot be separated from its workers.
  • If a national economy was constituted DCs, then it would be structurally impossible to disenfranchise the middle class. 
  • Successful DCs would be forced to strike a balance between the wishes of its workers, and the competitive demands of the marketplace.
  • DCs would generally be much more ethical actors, since the workers are members of the local community, are affected by the actions of their own company, and have interests beyond profit.
  • The ‘growth motive’, built into public companies will be eliminated, allowing a steady-state economy. 
  • A DC will be incented to share its profits with its workers. Boards that don’t implement such policies without good justification, such as re-investment in the company, will quickly lose their proxy support.
  • Thus workers would benefit more as part of a successful DC than one where they were a simple employee.
  • Workers would also feel like they have a voice in corporate governance, and thus feel a sense of ownership and pride that they can’t get as a simple employee.
  • Thus all other things being equal, DCs should have an advantage in attracting and retaining quality workers.

risks

  • Risk of theft and unauthorized disclosure of voting history. There are 5 hubs, so each hub is a vulnerability
    • This is where chris’ idea for obfuscating the userIds might be really important
    • At a minimum hubs should not know the user’s actual identity
  • Vote spoofing with a hacked client
    • Make the user record a video saying “I vote yae/nea on resolution 1234.”, along with a random word the user is asked to say (chair, green, goofy), that the server sends the client when it wants to vote.
      • Verify voice, face, the yae or nae and the resolution number, and the special word, and do it all server-side, with at least 2 hubs agreeing on the result.
      • Client uploads video to the hubs, and the hub verifies.