Sunset Pledge: Organised Civic Support as a Tool for Democratic Participation

Abstract

Sunset Pledge proposes a model of democratic participation based on autonomous, temporary civic groups whose members endorse a public programme in full. Groups seek public commitments from candidates, elected representatives and political organisations regardless of party affiliation, and assess subsequent conduct through periodic reporting and collective judgement. The founding manifesto establishes common principles: voluntary participation, independence from political parties, full programme endorsement, transparency, accountability, member assessment and the absence of a central political authority. Freedom and secrecy of the vote are preserved. Joining a group creates no enforceable voting obligation, and public commitments do not give the group authority to direct the exercise of public office. The paper explores two possible applications: a platform for aggregating programme endorsements through a crowdfunding-like process, and a system of ongoing support, confirmation and withdrawal inspired by project-follower relationships. It compares relevant precedents, examines limitations and risks, and formulates five falsifiable hypotheses concerning aggregation, institutional influence, accountability, autonomous replication and informed changes in support. This is a conceptual preprint. It distinguishes documented facts, hypotheses and normative choices. No original empirical data or experimental results are presented, and the proposed model has not been empirically validated. The aim is to make the proposal accessible to criticism, independent testing and possible practical implementation. Version: 1.0 — English.Author: Clemente Lucca, independent author with no institutional affiliation.Funding: none. Competing interests: none declared.Licence: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).