Crowdsourced constitution: better than the real thing?

From Cyber Yugoslavia to Iceland, online democracy is no longer just a fantasy. Plato must be turning in his grave.
During the late-1990s Internet era, the forgotten micronation of Cyber Yugoslavia (“CY”) was born. CY was launched in 1999, when “real” Yugoslavia had already ceased to exist. In response to the economic crisis and ethnic wars that had dismantled the country, a secretive playwright named Zoran Bacic created a virtual, multinational, and hyper-democratic version of the real thing.

During the late-1990s Internet era, the forgotten micronation of Cyber Yugoslavia (“CY”) was born. CY was launched in 1999, when “real” Yugoslavia had already ceased to exist. In response to the economic crisis and ethnic wars that had dismantled the country, a secretive playwright named Zoran Bacic created a virtual, multinational, and hyper-democratic version of the real thing.

Part Yugonostalgic art project, part experiment in “e-democracy”, CY had all the trappings of a genuine nation-building project: a new constitution, flag, national anthem, and an infinite number of poetic, if occasionally ridiculous, ministerial positions: UCL Professor Eric Gordy was Secretary of Kajmak (a Balkan version of unprocessed cream cheese, for the uninitiated), and film director Dusan Makavejev was the Secretary of Dancing in the Rain.

What made CY unique was that its virtual democratic institutions were entirely crowdsourced. As Article 1 of the CY constitution read: “Every citizen has the right to suggest a change to the Constitution. This suggestion can only be accepted or rejected if the majority of the population of CY agrees, through a Method of Public Vote.”

Read the rest of the text at BTurn magazine.