A politician is not a king, but acts like one when negotiating what is yours behind your back. Every private meeting between parties to divide power or decide a law puts your salary, your healthcare, and your taxes at stake. Without a recording or a public agenda, citizens are left without tools to demand accountability. Transparency is not a luxury: it is the only way to know if your vote counts for something or merely finances the next shadowy pact.
Technology to oversee: blockchain as a silent witness 🔗
The technical solution exists and does not require reinventing the wheel. A distributed ledger system like blockchain could store minutes of political meetings with timestamps and digital signatures. Each point discussed would remain unalterable and accessible to the public without revealing sensitive data. Open-source tools like Hyperledger or private Ethereum enable real-time audits. There would be no need for an auditor sitting at the table: it would suffice for every promise to be recorded on a chain that no party can erase. The technology is already ready. What is missing is the will.
The politician who promised transparency and asked for a soundproof room 🎭
It turns out that when you offer them a voting system with full traceability, the same people who called for democratic regeneration suddenly remember that privacy is a fundamental right. Of course, because it is very intimate to decide whether your salary goes up or down without anyone knowing. They have even suggested using homomorphic encryption so that the data is encrypted and no one can verify it. Basically, the same level of transparency as a magic trick: everything is seen, but nothing is understood. In the end, the only thing shared in those meetings is the right to avoid accountability.