Sharism and Representative Democracy: Analysis and a Proposal for a New Civic Participation

Is Representative Democracy Still Enough to Face the Challenges of Our Time?

We live in an era where digital technologies have profoundly transformed the ways we communicate, interact, and make collective decisions. Yet representative democracy, which dominates modern societies, still relies on participation models shaped in the pre-digital age—largely developed during the 18th and 19th centuries.

In this context, Sharism emerges as an alternative ideological proposal that does not reject representative democracy, but rather highlights its structural limitations and offers tools for its evolution—toward more participatory, distributed, and transparent models.

The Limits of Representative Democracy

1. Distance Between Representatives and Citizens Elected officials often act according to party or lobby interests, with little direct accountability to those who elected them.
2. Slow Decision-Making In a world moving at digital speed, parliamentary processes often seem too slow and outdated to respond effectively to real-time crises such as climate change, pandemics, or disruptive technologies like AI.
3. Low Participation and Growing Disillusionment Voter turnout is declining in many countries. Public trust in institutions and democratic mechanisms is eroding.
4. Concentration of Power Decision-making power is often centralized in a small elite, disconnected from everyday realities.

Sharism as an Evolution of Democracy

Sharism proposes a natural evolution of democracy, based on sharing, direct participation, and transparency. It does not aim to abolish representative democracy but rather enhance it through digital tools and collaborative networks that enable continuous and inclusive citizen engagement.

Sharist Principles in the Democratic Field:

• Shared Democracy Everyone has access to decision-making processes through open, transparent platforms—where ideas, proposals, votes, and feedback are continuously exchanged.
• Collective Intelligence Decisions are not left to a few elected officials but emerge from the interaction of communities, civic networks, and informed citizens—often supported by ethical AI tools.
• Civic Blockchain and Open Data To ensure trust and accountability, decision-making should rely on technologies that make every vote, transaction, and proposal traceable and publicly verifiable.
• Continuous, Not Episodic Participation Participation does not happen once every four or five years. Citizens co-design public policies, monitor their implementation, and correct them in real time.

Examples of Transition to Sharist Models

• Digital Participatory Budgets (e.g., in Barcelona, New York, Paris): Citizens decide directly how to allocate a portion of municipal budgets.
• Liquid Democracy: A hybrid system between direct and representative democracy, where people can vote directly or delegate dynamically and revocably.
• Civic Deliberation Platforms such as Decidim or Loomio: Used by local governments to involve citizens in transparent, traceable decision-making.
• Active Digital Citizenship, where participation includes public consultations, policy co-creation, and continuous feedback loops via online platforms.

The AI Revolution and the Need for New Democratic Governance

The rise of Artificial Intelligence adds a new layer of urgency to democratic challenges. Who controls the algorithms? Who sets their rules? How do we prevent abuse by private corporations or authoritarian regimes?

Sharism proposes to:

• Democratize access to and governance of AI, making it a common good—not just a tool for the powerful.
• Integrate ethical AI into decision-making processes, to assist—not replace—human intelligence.
• Ensure shared and verifiable information, to avoid manipulation and bias by opaque algorithms.

A Sharist Proposal: Toward a “Phygital Democracy”

Sharism envisions a phygital democracy (physical + digital), combining:

• Local civic hubs and community spaces (physical dimension)
• Collaborative, open-source, transparent platforms (digital dimension)
• Ethical AI tools to support accessibility, understanding, and inclusive dialogue
• Active, ongoing citizen engagement as co-creators of the common good

A Democracy for the Future

In a world changing faster than ever, we need institutions and political models that can evolve with society. If we fail to act, the gap between citizens and decisions may grow so wide that it undermines the very foundations of democracy.

Sharism offers an alternative vision: an ideology that combines technology, collaboration, and responsibility to build a more inclusive, dynamic, and accessible democracy for all.

More information about Sharism at sharism.wiki - sharism.xyz