Reviewing Radical Market Ideas

Quadratic Voting and the politics of persuasion

Quadratic Voting: A radical voting mechanism proposed in the book "Radical Markets". This mechanism allows for spending vote credits in a quadratic fashion, enabling voters to vote based on the intensity with which they feel about a particular issue. To cast 2 votes, one must spend 4 credits. To cast 3 votes, one must spend 9 credits and so on. The argument put forward by the proposers of this idea is that a small minority can save up votes to use them on an issue they are most passionate about.

Our take: Politics is the art of persuasion. The one person-one vote system requires that people negotiate and persuade others and reach a consensus to get things done. A quadratic voting system would reduce the incentive to persuade and enable more extreme positions to bulldoze middle ground positions. 

Listen here for the full episode where we review other such radical ideas from the book "Radical Markets".