Assisted representative government
Most probable first. Agents make legislation and services understandable, surface public priorities and help people challenge decisions.
End Up Here · Research
Working research / In development
How would
agentic government
actually work?
A systems investigation into personal mandates, public institutions, resource distribution, federated negotiation and the limits of automated authority.
Research propositionAgents can scale participation.
They cannot be allowed to own sovereignty.
They cannot be allowed to own sovereignty.
1 / Architecture
Person → agent
→ institution
→ remedy.
The person sets values, permissions, red lines and expiry. The agent explains public questions, researches evidence, votes or delegates within scope, and asks when uncertain. Public institutions define legal questions, protect rights, operate infrastructure, implement decisions and provide appeals.
The basic unit is not a vote. It is a traceable decision: who had authority, what question was asked, what evidence was available, what the agent inferred, what it did, and how the result can be challenged.
2 / Probable scenarios
Bounded delegated democracy
People delegate by topic, jurisdiction, confidence and time. Direct votes, human delegates and software agents coexist.
Federated agent government
Local, regional, national and global agents negotiate routine matters under published mandates. Humans retain rights and legitimacy.
3 / Decision machinery
Question.
Brief.
Deliberate.
Decide.
Question: an authorised body publishes legal scope, options, evidence, affected groups, decision rule and review date.
Brief: agents provide accessible explanations, competing arguments, uncertainty and distributional effects.
Deliberate: citizens’ assemblies and affected communities examine high-impact trade-offs.
Decide: people vote, delegate, abstain or request review. Ballots remain private.
Implement: agencies act under law, publish outcomes and open an appeal period.
4 / Economic constitution
Abundance still needs a public balance sheet.
Energy and production may become cheap while land, ecological capacity, unusual materials, quiet locations and attention remain limited. Government therefore needs a rights-based floor—health, food, shelter, education, connectivity, civic identity, basic energy and compute—plus an allocation layer for scarce choices.
Funding may combine public ownership, social dividends from automated production and resource rents, progressive taxation, regulated private provision and international equalisation. The public should see capacity, ecological limits, infrastructure ownership, obligations and surplus distribution.
5 / Safeguards
Mandate
Every agent has a topic, jurisdiction, action scope, confidence threshold, expiry and revocation method.
Plurality
People can change providers, compare models, use human channels and participate without reliable internet.
Remedy
People can see reasons, challenge data and rules, appeal exclusion and obtain correction independently.
6 / Evidence
What exists
already?
Decidim separates proposals, comments, amendments, assemblies, consultations, sortitions, votes, results and accountability. vTaiwan combines online tools with face-to-face deliberation. OECD research supports combining representative, direct and deliberative methods. UNESCO, the Council of Europe and the World Bank provide current rights, infrastructure and delivery principles relevant to the model.
7 / Prototype
Start locally.
Use a participatory budget or service-design process. Let residents choose a human or software delegate, set scope and expiry, receive accessible briefings, inspect implementation and appeal outcomes.
Measure honestly.
Compare comprehension, unequal access, provider influence, delegation changes, minority impact and appeals against human and non-agent channels.
The agent extends participation. It does not become the government.