LiquidFeedback
LiquidFeedback is free and open-source software for initiative-based, delegated decision-making. It was developed by the Public Software Group (formerly BCCM GmbH) in Berlin and released in 2009. The software implements a form of liquid democracy: participants can vote directly on initiatives or delegate their vote to a trusted representative, with delegation transitive and revocable at any time.
The platform gained international attention when the German Pirate Party adopted it as their core internal governance tool from around 2010. At its peak, the Pirate Party's LiquidFeedback installation had tens of thousands of active participants proposing and voting on policy positions — an unprecedented scale for liquid democracy in practice.
The initiative process follows a structured lifecycle: initiative → discussion → frozen (final editing) → voting. This prevents premature closure while maintaining a defined path to decision. The software is designed for organisations rather than individual citizens, and has been used by political parties, trade unions, and NGOs across Europe.
The source code is available under a permissive licence. Liquid Democracy e.V. (a Berlin nonprofit) also builds on LiquidFeedback for municipal participation projects.
Current status unclear. As of mid-2026, the site operates under FlexiGuided GmbH (the domain redirects from liquidfeedback.org to liquidfeedback.com) and no public development news has been found since 2012. The software may be in stable maintenance rather than active development. If you can confirm current deployments or recent commits, please update this page.
Links
- Website: liquidfeedback.com
- Source code: github.com/ddouglascarr/liquidfeedback-core
- Wikipedia: LiquidFeedback
See also
History
-
2009-10-01
First published by Public Software Group e.V., developed in response to requests from German Pirate Party membersMajor publication
Sourcing: High
The software was first published in October 2009 by Public Software Group e. V. after being suggested by some members of Germany's Pirate Party unsatisfied with conventional means of political opinion formation.
↗ View source -
2010-01-01
Pirate Party Berlin becomes the first political organisation to adopt LiquidFeedback, to draft new statutesFirst political party adopts the platform
Sourcing: High
The Pirate Party Germany Berlin became the first political party to utilize the platform in January 2010 for a state party conference. LiquidFeedback assisted in the development of new statutes for the branch during this time
↗ View source -
2010-06-01
Developers establish Interaktive Demokratie e.V., an independent research institute for digital-democracy research
Sourcing: High
In June 2010, the developers of LiquidFeedback founded Interaktive Demokratie e.V., an independent and non-partisan research institute.
↗ View source -
2012-09-01
First public-sector (non-party) deployment, in Friesland County, Germany, for citizen consultation on council proposals
Sourcing: High
The initial implementation of LiquidFeedback for public engagement occurred in Friesland County, Germany, in September 2012.
↗ View source