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Co-Voting Democracy: Bridging Direct and Representative Democracy

Author

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  • Hans Gersbach

Abstract

We provide a rationale for Co-Voting, a decision-making procedure that blends elements of direct and representative democracy to mitigate their main inefficiencies. A randomly selected group of citizens receives voting rights on specific issues, with their collective decision aggregated with parliament’s decision according to a pre-specified weight. Using a simple model, we show that Co-Voting acts as an insurance device against both uninformed decisions in direct democracy and decision biases in representative democracy. We further introduce Co-Del-Voting, which adds strategic delegation to parliament and strictly outperforms both systems. Finally, we outline possible extensions and a roadmap for implementation.

Suggested Citation

  • Hans Gersbach, 2026. "Co-Voting Democracy: Bridging Direct and Representative Democracy," CESifo Working Paper Series 12429, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12429
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • D02 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Institutions: Design, Formation, Operations, and Impact
    • D70 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - General
    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design

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