I think "free choice" might be a little better than "people's choice" as a term to describe how the proxy structure is created in Abd Lomax's DP method. The proxy-client relationship is created by mutual agreement of the proxy and the client.
As a political activist, I wish I had some special power to say to people, vote this way on that issue, and they would just do it. Unfortunately (from my viewpoint) I don't have that power :-(. So, I don't think I would be able to con people who don''t share my political viewpoint to let me be their proxy. What this means is that proxy "trees" will tend to be internally homogeneous; there will be Democrat trees, Republican trees, Libertarian trees, and of course, Green trees, etc. And the top proxies should be pretty good representatives of their constituencies. Another important aspect of Lomax's method is that a person can _always_ cast his vote directly, which overrides any vote cast for him by proxies. (More generally, a proxy casts votes for his constituency, which overrides the votes cast by higher-level proxies.) All these factors mean that the results of voting though DP should be pretty close to how all the people would vote if they voted directly. HOWEVER, as Abd has frequently mentioned, voting is a minor detail of the political process. Imagine the chaos and the bad decisions that would be made if citizens or a legislature just voted without first deliberating! The top proxies will tend to be prominent and eloquent spokespeople for the political position of the proxy tree they lead. Their direct clients will also tend to be well-informed activists - in other words, good advisors to the top proxies. Bringing these top proxies together in effect brings together all the best ideas of all the people. The internal homogeneity of the trees allows good ideas to pass up and down the trees more easily than if the trees were internally heterogeneous. For example, a good Democratic idea would have a better chance of travelling to the top of a Democratic tree than a Republican tree. Thus, the DP structure doubles as a communication network which is the infrastructure needed for deliberation. Folks, there is an opportunity for all of you to participate in a Free Association with Delegable Proxy. I have proposed the creation of the Boston Tea Free Association (BTFA), and put in place part of the DP infrastructure for it. The purpose of the BTFA is to serve as advisors to the new, libertarian Boston Tea Party. There is a Yahoo group, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/btpnc-talk/ that _anyone_ can join. Check out the first post in that group for details. Let's try it out and see how it works! I hope to see you over there! Cheers, - Jan ---- election-methods mailing list - see http://electorama.com/em for list info