Civic Proposals
What are Civic Proposals?
In many countries, especially in Poland, more and more laws are pushed through without the public understanding them or having meaningful options to impact them. Civic Proposals is our solution to this democratic deficit.
Similar to Community Notes, Civic Proposals creates a collaborative system where many people can put forward propositions and vote for them, including voting on the laws themselves. This platform empowers citizens to have a real voice in the legislative process.
It's a democratic engagement platform that bridges the gap between citizens and lawmakers, ensuring that public opinion is heard and considered in the creation and modification of laws and regulations.
How It Works
New Law Published
When a new law or regulation is proposed, it's published in the app, allowing user to read them within document Viewer. At this step, AI-powered summarization tools can but don't have to help users understand complex legal language, with the ability to ask follow-up questions about the legislation.
Create Change Requests
After reading a law, users can create "change requests" (or proposals) that suggest modifications. Each proposal requires certain fields to be filled to ensure it's easy to understand for everyone. AI tools can help users formulate clear, well-structured proposals. Some actual effort is required to submit proposals, making it harder to abuse the system.
Acceptance Process
Once a change request is submitted, it goes through an acceptance process where people and automated filters decide whether it should be published. This ensures quality and prevents spam and inappropriate content from cluttering the platform.
Vote and Discuss
Once published, other users can vote on proposals and engage in discussions. Users can also "sign" under change requests and petitions, showing their support. The voting system helps surface the most important and widely-supported proposals.
Government Engagement
When proposals receive significant support, governments can be notified. Initially, this creates public visibility and pressure for governments to listen. As adoption grows, this could become a legal requirement, ensuring that citizen voices are formally heard in the legislative process. The goal is to make this feature public enough that governments start listening to gain popularity, while adoption grows to make this an actual legal requirement.
Key Features
- Legal Expert & AI Assistance: Summarization tools and Q&A features help citizens understand complex legal documents with the help of AI and legal experts.
- Collaborative Proposals: Community-driven change requests with structured fields ensure clarity and comprehensibility.
- Voting System: Users can vote on proposals and the laws themselves, creating a democratic feedback mechanism.
- Discussion Platform: Open discussions allow for nuanced debate and refinement of proposals.
- Petition System: Users can sign under change requests and petitions to show support.
- Abuse Prevention: Built-in mechanisms require effort to submit proposals, preventing spam and manipulation.
- Beyond Laws: Not restricted to laws and regulations - can be used for any policy or regulatory changes.
Authentication & Anonymity
To ensure both security and privacy, Civic Proposals will use a sophisticated authentication system based on Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs) and Anonymous Credentials. This approach will balance user authentication, anonymity, and moderation while protecting your privacy.
Privacy-Preserving Verification
Users will verify their government ID using Zero-Knowledge Proofs, proving they are a unique person without revealing any personal data to system administrators. This will ensure only one account per person (Sybil resistance) while maintaining complete privacy.
Complete Voting Anonymity
Even if you authenticate with a government ID, all voting will be completely anonymous. Your votes and proposals will be linked to an anonymous credential that cannot be traced back to your identity. No one, including system administrators, will be able to see who voted for what.
This system will ensure that your democratic participation is both secure and private, allowing you to vote and propose changes without fear of retaliation or identification.
Funding and Independence
Civic Proposals is part of FlareFact's features, financed by FlareFact AI functionalities and the FlareFact non-profit organization. While governments could potentially subscribe to country-specific versions of the system (for example, a German government could pay a fee for the system to be adjusted to their country), we are committed to maintaining independence.
We recognize that becoming dependent on government funding could make the organization vulnerable to outside influence. Therefore, our primary funding comes from FlareFact's AI-powered verification services and FlareFact non-profit organization, ensuring that Civic Proposals remains a truly independent platform for democratic engagement.
This funding model ensures that the platform serves citizens first, not political interests, maintaining the integrity and independence necessary for true democratic participation.
How to Join?
Getting started with Civic Proposals is simple! Just sign up for a FlareFact account, and we'll notify you as soon as the feature becomes available. In the meantime, join our Discord community to discuss the future of democratic engagement.
Roadmap
We have an exciting vision for the future of Civic Proposals. Check out our roadmap to see what we're building next and how you can be part of shaping the future of democratic engagement.