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Created several example entries; edited the .template.md; added to the Contribute page

Nathan Schneider 5 years ago
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docs/about/basics.md

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 The future of governance is being made in social movements, networked protocols, and unsettled governments around the world. What tools will they have to work with?
 
-# "I love the noise of democracy." — James Buchanan
+<div id="pullquote">"I love the noise of democracy" — James Buchanan</div>
 
 **This is a collaborative directory of democratic mediums—patterns for decision, deliberation, and noise.** It brings lessons from political, corporate, and community governance into conversation with the people inventing the next generation of institutions with permissionless networks and radical markets.
 

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docs/about/contribute.md

@@ -24,7 +24,34 @@ Please send any questions to [medlab@colorado.edu](mailto:medlab@colorado.edu).
 
 The "mediums" included in this directory should aim to capture the most discrete, modular elements of democratic practice. That is, *Westminster system* would not be a good entry because it is a historical phenomenon that combines many elements. Some of those elements, such as *proportional representation* and *parliamentarianism*, however, would be useful to include.
 
+### New entries
+
+To create a new entry, copy the content of the [docs/mediums/.template.md](https://gitlab.com/medlabboulder/democraticmediums/blob/master/docs/mediums/.template.md) file into a new file at docs/mediums/NAME.md. Follow the format of the template, and look to existing entries for examples.
+
+### Markup
+
+Democratic Mediums files are written in [Markdown](https://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/dingus), a simple markup language that translates to HTML. (When necessary, HTML may be used as well.) For information about how the MkDocs system handles links, metadata, and other content, see [its documentation](https://www.mkdocs.org/user-guide/writing-your-docs/).
+
 ### Style
 
-Democratic Mediums is not meant to be exhaustive or encyclopedic. Entries should strive above all for brevity, clarity, and practicality. The model for an entry should be not a Wikipedia article but a technical manual, like [API documentation](https://www.mulesoft.com/resources/api/guidelines-api-documentation).
+Democratic Mediums is not meant to be exhaustive or encyclopedic. Entries should strive above all for brevity, clarity, and practicality. The model for an entry should be not a Wikipedia article but a technical manual, like [API documentation](https://www.mulesoft.com/resources/api/guidelines-api-documentation). Concise, grammatical bullet points and examples are more appropriate than lengthy prose discussions. The purpose is not completeness (leave that to sources in the Further Resources section) but usability for governance designers.
+
+Language should be as simple and direct, avoiding specialized terminology wherever possible.
+
+### References
+
+Most citations can be made through links to source material and in-text indications of the source. External sources that are especially useful can be included in the Further Resources section of an entry.
+
+Bibliographic references can be made in the [Chicago Manual of Style bibliography-entry format](https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide/citation-guide-1.html) or a format that similarly enables alphabetization. Include links in bibliographic entries where possible.
+
+## Roadmap
+
+The following are future goals for this project:
+
+* Populate more of the entries in the directory
+* Build community and a robust contributor base
+* Commission uniform illustrated diagrams for each entry
+* Present the mediums as less isolated and more modular, enabling users to assemble them into packages and processes
+* Gamification features enabling users to test mediums against one another
 
+To get involved in developing these strategic objectives, please write to [medlab@colorado.edu](mailto:medlab@colorado.edu).

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docs/index.md

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 The future of governance is being made today. What tools do we have to work with?
 
-# Democratic Mediums is a directory of patterns for decision, deliberation, and noise.
+<div id="pullquote">Democratic Mediums is a directory of patterns for decision, deliberation, and noise.</div>
+
+This is an early-stage project that is mostly incomplete. Browse some sample entries: [Bureaucracy](mediums/bureaucracy.md), [Condorcet](mediums/condorcet.md), [Sortition](mediums/sortition.md).

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docs/mediums/.template.md

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 # TITLE
 
-OVERVIEW
+<!-- brief summary of the medium, no more than a handful of sentences
+
+(delete these comments as you fill in the sections) -->
+
+**Input:** <!-- what is required to use it? -->
+
+**Output:** <!-- what results does it produce? -->
 
 ## History
 
+<!-- brief historical reference points -->
+
 ## Feedback loops
 
 ### Sensitivities
 
+<!-- what does this medium capture especially well? -->
+
 ### Oversights
 
+<!-- what does this medium overlook? -->
+
 ## Implementations
 
 ### Communities
 
+<!-- what are some real-world examples in practice? -->
+
 ### Tools
 
-## Bibliography
+<!-- what software, methodologies, or organizations are available to facilitate implementation -->
+
+## Further resources
 
-## Further reading
+<!-- where should people look first if they want to learn more? -->

+ 22 - 4
docs/mediums/bureaucracy.md

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 # Bureaucracy
 
-OVERVIEW
+Bureaucracy is a portion of a governance system designed to be neutral and insulated from political pressures. Bureaucracies tend to function on the basis of professionalism and meritocracy, rather than popular preference. They can counterbalance more transient political formations, such as elected officials and referendums.
 
-<!-- continuity, professionalism -->
+**Input:** Externally defined priorities, meritocratic internal incentive structures, continuity through political change
+
+**Output:** consistency of service delivery, neutral expertise in the service of popular priorities
 
 ## History
 
+Perhaps the most famous ancient bureaucracy was that developed in China's Han dynasty (202 BCE - 220 AD), which used expertise in Confucian philosophy as the basis for securing government positions. Other ancient governments developed bureaucratic structures as well.
+
+Bureaucracy became a central feature of modern governments and corporations, providing operational continuity alongside policy changes from elected leaders.
+
 ## Feedback loops
 
 ### Sensitivities
 
+* Handles matters that require expertise more effectively than elected officials or the population as a whole
+* Can implement controversial policies with limited vulnerability to public pressure
+
 ### Oversights
 
+* Can become self-perpetuating, expanding in reach to the point of subjecting political policy-making to undue constraints
+
 ## Implementations
 
 ### Communities
 
+* Militaries under control of civilian government
+* Various government ministries throughout the world
+
 ### Tools
 
-## Bibliography
+* [Open badges](https://openbadges.org/) and other certification mechanisms
+* Standardized testing
+
+## Further resources
 
-## Further reading
+* Graeber, David. _The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy_. Melville House, 2015.
+* Weber, Max. _Economy and Society_. 1922.

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docs/mediums/condorcet.md

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 # Condorcet
 
-OVERVIEW
+Condorcet is an election method that selects the candidate, if such a candidate exists, that would win a [majority vote](majority_voting.md) against all other candidates. Ballots may take the form of either a single [preferential vote](preferential_voting.md) or a sequence of runoffs.
+
+There is not always a "Condorcet winner," and various implementations provide differing methods of determining a winner in such cases.
+
+**Input:** preferential vote or runoffs
+
+**Output:** Condorcet winner or circular paradox
 
 ## History
 
+The Condorcet method takes its name from an early promoter, the 18th-century French mathematician Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas Caritat, who was the Marquis de Condorcet. The method itself was [first described by Ramon Llull](https://www.math.uni-augsburg.de/htdocs/emeriti/pukelsheim/2001a.html) in 1299. A version of it is used in Robert's Rules of Order, first published in 1876.
+
+Recently, it has attracted the interest of software developers and has been adopted by several prominent Free Software communities and Pirate Party groups.
+
+
 ## Feedback loops
 
 ### Sensitivities
 
+* Prevents some potential for gaming that is possible in other voting methods
+
 ### Oversights
 
+* The complexity of the system may lead to confusion
+
 ## Implementations
 
 ### Communities
 
+* Free Software communities
+    - [Debian Project](https://www.debian.org/vote/)
+    - [Python Software Foundation voting process](https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-8001/)
+    - Wikimedia Foundation
+* Pirate Party of Sweden uses it for primary elections
+
 ### Tools
 
-## Bibliography
+* [Condorcet Internet Voting Service](https://civs.cs.cornell.edu/) at Cornell University
+
+## Further resources
 
-## Further reading
+* "[Condorcet method](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condorcet_method)" at Wikipedia
+* Schulze, Markus. "[A new monotonic, clone-independent, reversal symmetric, and condorcet-consistent single-winner election method](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00355-010-0475-4)." _Social Choice and Welfare_ 36, no. 2 (February 2011).

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docs/mediums/majority_voting.md

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+# Majority voting

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docs/mediums/quadratic-voting.md → docs/mediums/quadratic_voting.md


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docs/mediums/range-voting.md → docs/mediums/range_voting.md


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docs/mediums/referendum.md

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+# Referendum

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docs/mediums/representation.md

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 # Representation
-
-OVERVIEW
-
-## History
-
-## Feedback loops
-
-### Sensitivities
-
-### Oversights
-
-## Implementations
-
-### Communities
-
-### Tools
-
-## Bibliography
-
-## Further reading

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docs/mediums/secret_ballot.md

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 # Secret ballot
 
-OVERVIEW
-
-## History
-
-## Feedback loops
-
-### Sensitivities
-
-### Oversights
-
-## Implementations
-
-### Communities
-
-### Tools
-
-## Bibliography
-
-## Further reading

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docs/mediums/sortition.md

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 # Sortition
 
-OVERVIEW
+Sortition is the random selection of people for positions of authority from a general pool. Those selected may serve individually or in juries and typically have the time and resources to become well informed on the questions they are chosen to decide.
+
+**Input:** census of community members, randomization method, appropriate training
+
+**Output:** advisory recommendation or binding decision
 
 ## History
 
-<!-- Beginning with the Greeks -->
+Sortition was a basic feature of Athenian democracy. During the medieval and early-modern period it was used for governing some Italian city-states, such as Venice and Florence.
+
+In recent political systems, it is used most commonly for the formation of citizen juries for trials. But it has had [other scattered uses](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sortition#Modern_application) in recent history, from Amish communities to national constitutional reform processes.
 
 ## Feedback loops
 
 ### Sensitivities
 
+* Encourages deliberation insulated from external pressures
+* Can enable juries to gain a level of focused expertise on the issue at hand greater than what would be possible for the population as a whole or elected representatives
+
 ### Oversights
 
+* May not be fully representative of the population
+* May enable groupthink and negative internal dynamics among selected juries, especially in the absence of a [secret ballot](secret_ballot)
+
 ## Implementations
 
 ### Communities
 
-<!-- Chinese "deliberative democracy" -->
+* Citizen juries in judicial trials
+* "[Deliberative democracy](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=deliberative democracy china)" processes in China
 
 ### Tools
 
-## Bibliography
+## Further resources
 
-## Further reading
+* [Sortition Foundation](https://www.sortitionfoundation.org/)
+* "[Sortition](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sortition)" on Wikipedia

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docs/mediums/term_limits.md

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 # Term limits
 
-OVERVIEW
-
-## History
-
-## Feedback loops
-
-### Sensitivities
-
-### Oversights
-
-## Implementations
-
-### Communities
-
-### Tools
-
-## Bibliography
-
-## Further reading

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docs/stylesheets/extra.css

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-# Reference: https://github.com/squidfunk/mkdocs-material/tree/master/src/assets/stylesheets
+/* Reference: https://github.com/squidfunk/mkdocs-material/tree/master/src/assets/stylesheets */
+
+#pullquote {
+    font-size: x-large;
+    font-style: italic;
+    color: gray;
+    margin-left: 40px;
+}