Liquid Democracy and the Problem of Authority

Liquid democracy (LD) is a hybrid model of political decision-making that combines direct participation with flexible, revocable and transitive delegation of votes. Often celebrated for its epistemic and egalitarian potential, it promises to overcome some of the limitations of both representative and direct democracy. However, LD’s concrete implementation — particularly in digital platforms like LiquidFeedback — raises questions related to authority, or legitimate power. Strategic delegation, unequal accumulation of voting power, and hierarchical pressures can compromise the procedural legitimacy that liquid democracy is meant to enhance. This paper explores these tensions from a normative perspective, asking under what conditions liquid democracy can confer authority to representatives. By scrutinizing vote delegation, deliberation, and platform design, the paper aims to develop a set of criteria for assessing the processes of liquid democratic systems and to propose innovative design features.