Democracy method

Participatory democracy needs decision signals people can inspect

Participatory democracy often needs to produce a clear signal across alternatives, beyond comments, turnout, or a simple poll. Nicolas can serve as that decision layer.

Start a decisionSee the mechanism

Nicolas mechanism signals

These concepts follow the mathematical contract used by the app.

Convex cost

cost = c * sum a_ij^2

Voice budget

sum a_ij^2 <= B

Outcome rule

shifted softmax over support

What participatory democracy needs

Participation can mean agenda setting, public comment, consultation, budgeting, deliberation, or voting, so a single tool rarely covers every part of that process well.

Nicolas focuses on the decision layer through clear alternatives, finite voice budgets, measurable support and opposition, and transparent outcomes.

Why intensity matters

In participatory processes, the people most affected by a decision may be a minority. A simple majority signal can miss the strength of their preference.

Quadratic voting lets participants spend more voice credits where they care more, while making that intensity costly and visible.

Where Nicolas does not fit

Nicolas does not handle outreach, identity verification, meeting facilitation, public records law, or the political process that decides whether a signal is binding.

It fits best when the process already has participants, alternatives, and a need for a structured preference-intensity result.

Use cases

Where this decision model helps

Proposal prioritization

Decide which community or member proposals deserve deeper attention.

Participatory budgeting signals

Compare budget alternatives before formal administrative approval.

Member consultation

Gather a stronger signal than broad approval before a final governance step.

FAQ

Is Nicolas a participatory democracy platform?

Nicolas can support participatory democracy decisions, but it does not replace full participation platforms, outreach tools, facilitation, or legal process.

Can Nicolas support participatory budgeting?

Nicolas can support participatory budgeting-style signals when a group needs to compare alternatives with finite voice budgets and transparent accounting.

Where does a poll fall short?

Polls are useful for simple preference counts. Nicolas is more useful when the process needs to measure preference intensity and opposition.

Keep reading

Continue with adjacent concepts and practical Nicolas workflows.

Participatory governanceSee the governance use case for measurable conviction and delegation.Community resource allocationApply intensity-aware voting to shared resources and participatory budgets.