Digital Democracy Abroad

G0v (pronounced gov zero), and through it vTaiwan, was an outgrowth of the Sunflower Movement which emerged in 2014 as a response to a trade deal between Taiwan and China.  The deal was believed to subject Taiwan to economic dependency on China and drew fierce opposition from student groups and academics who demanded clause-by-clause review of the deal.  Through their protests and public pressure, the deal collapsed.  G0v grew out of this movement as a dedicated group of civic hackers who used their technical expertise for the betterment of society.  They created vTaiwan, a platform to improve the transparency of governmental decision making.  Today, vTaiwan has seen multiple initiatives succeed and become policy.  Through their process (detailed below) they have seen legislation passed regulating UberX, complex financial instruments, and non-consensual pornography.

GovThePpl is inspired by the digital democracy platform vTaiwan and the g0v movement.  We believe that there is a hunger for meaningful online political engagement in the United States, and that the government not substantively responsive to this discourse.  By focusing these passions into a process that encourages constructive discourse, and by connecting the outcomes of this process with legislators we hope to translate online political engagement into direct political results.  vTaiwan has found success using this method and our goal is the creation of a similar system.  Though vTaiwan is the model, the model may be adjusted for the American context based on community decisions.