The Other Entrances

I. The Single Entrance

In our essay “The Long March through the Party” we described how a democracy like Germany’s has only a single entrance for its politicians: the path through the party, from the local branch via the district list to the seat. This path filters not for judgement but for time, patience and conformity. From this we developed proposals: representatives without a party card (German), whose candidacy is open, whose funding is capped and whose past is transparent. A mandate without a place (German), not tied to a constituency. And a blank vote that is not merely counted but has consequences.

Such proposals are easy to dismiss as thought experiments. That is why it is worth looking abroad. It turns out that almost every part of them is already being tried somewhere in the world. Some of it has succeeded, some has failed, and both can be learned from.

II. A Report Nobody Wanted to Read

The most similar story begins in 2012 in the north-east of the Australian state of Victoria, in the electorate of Indi. A group of citizens had written a report on the concerns of their region and handed it to their member of parliament, a conservative who had held the seat safely for years. She showed no interest. The citizens then founded “Voices for Indi”. They invited people into their kitchens, talked in small groups about what the region needed, and in the end jointly chose a candidate of their own: Cathy McGowan, a farmer without a party. With 117,000 dollars in donations and many volunteers she won the seat in 2013. In 2019 she stepped down, and the group put forward a successor, Helen Haines. For the first time in Australian history, an independent succeeded an independent.

The example caught on. In other electorates, “Voices” groups formed on the same pattern. In 2019 an independent candidate in Sydney defeated former Prime Minister Tony Abbott. In 2022 six independents took safe seats from the conservatives, among them that of Treasurer Josh Frydenberg. Because of their campaign colour, a blue-green, they are called the “teals”. At the 2025 election independents and minor parties together received more votes than the conservative coalition for the first time since 1944.

What matters is the procedure. The “Voices” groups are not parties. They have no programme beyond the concerns of their electorate, and their members of parliament take instructions from no one. The candidates are not nominated by an apparatus but sought out by citizens. That is, without software and without AI, pretty much what we described in our concept paper.

III. The Weak Flank Is Money

The teals were attacked again and again at one point. A large part of their money came through “Climate 200”, an organisation founded by a single businessman, Simon Holmes à Court. In 2022 it distributed almost six million Australian dollars. Their opponents therefore called the teals “fake independents”, a party in disguise steered by a rich man. Whether that is true is disputed. But the accusation was effective because it struck at a real weakness.

Our concept has an answer the Australians lacked: a cap per donor and full disclosure down to the last cent. For an independent to stay independent, he must not depend on a single backer, however well-meaning.

There is a second difference, and it is often overlooked. In Australia voters do not cast just one vote; they rank the candidates by preference. When the last is eliminated, his votes pass to the next choice on the ballot. An independent with only a third of first preferences can still win if supporters of the other small candidates rank her second. In a German constituency, whoever has the most first votes wins, and no one votes for a candidate if they fear the vote will be wasted. That goes a long way to explaining why hardly any independent candidate has won a constituency since the first Bundestag, even though the law permits it.

IV. The Party without Content

Others have tried what we call the minimal party. In Argentina two programmers founded the “Partido de la Red”, the Net Party, in 2012. It had no programme. Its representatives were to vote as citizens decided online. In the 2013 election in Buenos Aires it won about one percent. In Sweden a party called Demoex had already tried the same at municipal level in 2002, with a similar result.

The lesson is uncomfortable. Voters vote for people and causes, not for procedures. A party that promises only a better procedure is too abstract for most. The teals succeeded because they had faces and issues that were burning locally: climate protection and clean politics. The minimal party that German electoral law requires for lists can therefore only be a vessel. What convinces voters must be the people who stand for it.

V. The Blank Vote with Consequences

In Colombia, Article 258 of the constitution contains what a petition in Germany demanded in vain. If, in the election of a president, a governor or a mayor, the blank vote wins an absolute majority in the first round, the election must be repeated, and with entirely new candidates. In the 2026 presidential election the blank vote received only 1.7 percent. But its effect lies not in the result but in the threat: no party can rely on voters choosing the lesser evil if they can instead send all the candidates back.

India has had the option “none of the above” on every ballot since 2013. It is counted, but has no consequences in parliamentary elections. The comparison shows what matters. A blank vote that is merely counted is a safety valve. A blank vote with consequences is a lever.

VI. The Rollback

Other countries have firmly established the second entrance we mentioned in “The Long March through the Party”: selection by lot. In Ireland, randomly selected citizens’ assemblies prepared the referendums on marriage equality and on abortion. In East Belgium there has been a permanent citizens’ council since 2019. It sets its own topics, convenes assemblies chosen by lot and follows up on what parliament makes of their recommendations. After five years, parliament incorporates the core points into its legislation.

Germany is going the opposite way. The last Bundestag had a citizens’ assembly on nutrition with 160 randomly selected citizens. The current coalition has struck the word “Bürgerrat” from the 2026 budget and dissolved the responsible office, although the coalition agreement said such formats would continue. The President of the Bundestag’s justification is in the motto. It is the most precise description of the single entrance one could wish for: whoever is already inside considers a second entrance superfluous.

VII. What Follows

First: independent representatives are no utopia. They win when they are rooted in a place, when citizens have sought them out themselves, and when they stand for a concern the parties neglect.

Second: their independence stands or falls with money. Without a cap per donor, the movement from below quickly becomes the accusation of a party from above.

Third: electoral law has a say. Whoever wants to give independents a chance in Germany must not only open up candidacies but also change the way votes are cast, for instance so that candidates can be ranked. And here lies an opportunity for the mandate without a place. In the Netherlands the whole country is a single constituency, and a candidate with enough personal votes can enter parliament past their own party. A nationwide vote for persons is everyday practice there.

Fourth: a blank vote only works if it has consequences. Colombia shows that this can be written into a constitution.

VIII. How This Essay Could Be Refuted

The first objection: independents make parliaments ungovernable. Whoever is bound to no one cannot be brought into any majority. Australia tends to argue against this. Between 2010 and 2013 a minority government governed there with the support of independents, and by common count it passed more legislation than some majority governments. But three years are no proof.

The second objection: the teals are a phenomenon of affluent neighbourhoods. They won almost exclusively in electorates with educated, well-off voters. That is true, and it is a serious objection. A path open only to those who have time and money for kitchen-table conversations replaces one narrow entrance with another narrow entrance.

The essay would be refuted if it could be shown that independent representatives, where they exist, do not represent their voters better than the party candidates they displaced, but merely differently.

IX. The Kitchen

The Australian story began with a report a member of parliament did not want to read, and with conversations in kitchens. It needed no constitutional amendment and no new technology, only citizens who had stopped waiting at the single entrance.

If those who are already inside consider a second entrance superfluous: who will build it?