It’s still a fairly low number.

For me, your own reflection on it. 200,000 is a pretty big number, but Taiwan has 23 million people, right?

That’s the vTaiwan process. A couple of questions. Tell us something about who’s participating here? vTaiwan over the course of those 26 pieces of legislation they’ve been developed have engaged about 200,000 people, is that number about correct?

Or you can override me. If you want to talk...

So soon. I can’t wait, I have too many... I’m going to come back to all my other democratic theory questions in a moment. Let me just interrupt again to say if folks in the back want to, there are seats over here on the side. Please feel free to ...

Now tell us about the tech, and how all of this gets...

How they are connected? Whether they came one at a time or sprung whole cloth from your head and that of your colleagues. What are the components in this kind of ecosystem that have begun to create this new culture?

You’ve created this whole ecosystem now of tools and culture for digital listening and deliberation. I know that everybody is super eager, at least I think you should be super eager to get to the demo and to see the details here. I’m wondering if you can, before we dive ...

Neither is Spain, but... [laughs]

Their view is they want to be Switzerland. You don’t want to be Switzerland, and I’m curious why not.

I just want to push a little bit further on this, because so many of the other public engagement platforms that have been developed growing out of different social movements, and here I’m thinking about our friends in Spain, who have chosen to go a different path which is what ...

Would you say it was a particular vision for democracy that was the cause? Why did this work and those didn’t would you say?

Obviously, Zuccotti Park, the occupy here, the Occupy Movement and the related social movements were not as successful. There’s clearly some vision that you had or that others had or they coalesced that caused you to develop some really concrete proposals to move forward.

[laughs] I want to push you just on this, but this is very interesting that whereas for...Oh, I’m sorry, here, I’ll grab the bad mic. Is that the...?

We’re recording.

Try that one.

I will start things off by really just asking you, how did you get started? What was the problem? Was it this problem that we’re talking about now? What was it that motivated you? What was the challenge really that you were setting out to solve? Was it a problem ...

...for what’s happening here. Welcome very much. Let me start. We’re going to make this as much of a conversation. Knowing Audrey, she will hack whatever it is that I ask her and talk about, I hope, what she wants to.

We would like to find out the ways in which you are helping to make government and democracy stronger, to do a better job at delivering services, what the vision is and for creating more effective and legitimate policies. Really to understand what it is, what this revolution is that’s ...

We’re going to hear tonight though not about the United States, but about Taiwan. Hopefully, not only about the challenges that are faced, but hopefully some very hopeful developments that Audrey and her colleagues have been able to bring about.

In 2013, that number was 28 percent. Right now, in most recent surveys, the number of people who say the federal government at least does an excellent job is now at two percent.

Add on top of that the fact that for a long time now, trust in government even before these current spate of authoritarian and populist leaders, that trust in government has been declining over many, many years. In 1958, 73 percent of people said that they could trust the federal ...

Of course, it’s Trump here in the United states. People who deride their opponents as criminals, who maintain a constant sense of threat and support and endorse violence in our political culture, who show contempt for their critics and for the media, and who, frankly, stoke conspiracy theories galore, again ...

They very chillingly paint the picture of how the dangers that we face today are not tanks in the streets. It’s not people with guns. It’s not people being thrown in prison. It is in fact what we’re seeing, which is Putin who is permanently in office by swapping the ...

I think we’re very deeply concerned that this is not simply another cycle in the swing back between one party and another but potentially something deeper and more dangerous that’s going on. There are no tanks in the streets. If you’ve read Ziblatt and Levitsky, the two Harvard professors who ...

We started, let me just give a quick word of this is why we started this conversation. We’re living right now in a time, in a country, in which every day is election day, in which party politics are coming ever before problem-solving and public interest.

It’s very hard to live in the United States right now and not to be in the world right now, I think, and not to be deeply fearful and worried about the state of democracy.

I’m really thrilled and grateful to Audrey for being here for our first inaugural Future of Democracy lecture conversation, as we’re going to have it. I’m hopefully not the fearless leader. I am just the modest hostess of a conversation that I think we’re all eager to have and eager ...

...often. If you have to leave early, please don’t worry. Neither Audrey nor I will be insulted. Please feel free to come up and take a seat. We’d love to fill in the room and have you join us.

Thank you very much, Jessica. Thank you to IPK for hosting us. For those of you in the back, we have seats up here in the front. We promise A, we won’t call on you...