Era 06 · 2000 — Present

Code & Crowd

Who consents

Rule by protocol

Pulse cycle

1.5s

Legitimacy is now contested on two fronts at once. Above: populist movements and algorithmic media reshape what 'the people' means. Below: decentralized organizations run on code, voting on-chain, executing automatically, with no sovereign above them. The 20th-century assumption that states are the highest political unit is quietly breaking.

Events in this era

Dec 17, 2010 — 2012

Arab Spring

On December 17, 2010, a 26-year-old Tunisian street vendor named Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in protest after a municipal officer confiscated his cart. Within weeks, the Tunisian president had fled. The protest movement spread via Facebook and Twitter to Egypt, Libya, Syria, Yemen, and Bahrain. Hosni Mubarak was forced from office in February 2011 after thirty years. Muammar Gaddafi was killed in October 2011 after forty-two years. Five governments fell. Three more (Syria, Yemen, Libya) collapsed into civil wars that have continued in some form ever since. The Arab Spring was the first major political revolution coordinated primarily through social media — a new mandate-claim mechanism, with mixed and largely tragic outcomes.

Five regimes fell; three civil wars still running

Jun 2016 — Nov 2016

Brexit and Trump

On June 23, 2016, the UK voted 51.9 percent to 48.1 percent to leave the European Union, a margin of about 1.3 million votes. On November 8, 2016, Donald Trump lost the US popular vote by nearly 2.9 million but won the Electoral College 304 to 227, carrying Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin by a combined 77,744 votes. Cambridge Analytica had harvested data from roughly 87 million Facebook profiles to model and target persuadable voters. Both elections were decided by narrow margins, shaped by unprecedented algorithmic targeting, and produced winners whose legitimacy has been contested from day one.

Redefined the mechanics of a mandate in the social-media era

Sep 2022

Ethereum Merge & the DAO Era

Ethereum moved to proof-of-stake. A new class of political-economic entity — the DAO — crossed $10B in treasury across dozens of organizations. Governance happens on-chain: proposals, votes, execution, all without a sovereign.

First serious non-state model of binding collective rule in centuries

Jan 6, 2021

US Capitol attack

A crowd of roughly 2,000 stormed the US Capitol during certification of the 2020 presidential election. Organized partly through social media and niche message boards. Certification was paused for six hours. Five people died. The first violent disruption of a US presidential transition in modern history.

Peaceful transfer-of-power norm visibly broken

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Ideology & State

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