Governing democracy, the internet, and boardrooms
Who gets to decide what, for whom? Governance is one of the trickiest challenges people have faced, from ancient city-states to AI startups. Experts Noah Feldman, constitutional law scholar at Harvard who architected the Meta oversight board and has written multiple books, and Andrew Hall, professor of political science at Stanford and consultant to a16z crypto research, join a16z crypto editor Robert Hackett for a hallway-style conversation touring the field’s big ideas, lessons learned in practice, and the most exciting experiments happening today. They discuss everything from the history of democracy, to the dynamics (and dysfunctions) of corporate and university boards, to the hopes for blockchain-based DAOs and beyond, as well as examples of governance from big companies like Meta to startups like Anthropic, and much more.
a16z crypto show · Noah Feldman, Andrew Hall, Robert Hackett
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Show Notes
with @NoahRFeldman, @ahall_research, @rhhackett
Welcome to web3 with a16z. I'm Robert Hackett and today we have a special episode about governance in many forms — from nation states to corporate boards to internet services and beyond.
Our special guests are Noah Feldman, constitutional law scholar at Harvard who also architected the Meta oversight board (among many other things); he is also the author of several books. And our other special guest is Andy Hall, professor of political science at Stanford who is an advisor of a16z crypto research — and who also co-authored several papers and posts about web3 as a laboratory for designing and testing new political systems, including new work we'll link to in the shownotes.
Our hallway style conversation covers technologies and approaches to governance, from constitutions to crypto/ blockchains and DAOs. As such we also discuss content moderation and community standards; best practices for citizens assemblies; courts vs. legislatures; and much more where governance comes up.
Throughout, we reference the history and evolution of democracy — from Ancient Greece to the present day — as well as examples of governance from big companies like Meta, to startups like Anthropic.
Resources for references in this episode:
- On the U.S. Supreme Court case NetChoice, LLC v. Paxton (Scotusblog)
- On Meta's oversight board (Oversightboard.com)
- On Anthropic's long term benefit trust (Anthropic, September 2023)
- On "Boaty McBoatface" winning a boat-naming poll (Guardian, April 2016)
- On Athenian democracy (World History Encyclopedia, April 2018)
- The Three Lives of James Madison: Genius, Partisan, President by Noah Feldman (Random House, October 2017)
A selection of recent posts and papers by Andrew Hall:
- The web3 governance lab: Using DAOs to study political institutions and behavior at scale by Andrew Hall and Eliza Oak (a16z crypto, June 2024)
- DAO research: A roadmap for experimenting with governance by Andrew Hall and Eliza Oak (a16z crypto, June 2024)
- The effects of retroactive rewards on participating in online governance by Andrew Hall and Eliza Oak (a16z crypto, June 2024)
- Lightspeed Democracy: What web3 organizations can learn from the history of governance by Andrew Hall and Porter Smith (a16z crypto, June 2023)
- What Kinds of Incentives Encourage Participation in Democracy? Evidence from a Massive Online Governance Experiment by Andrew Hall and Eliza Oak (working paper, November 2023)
- Bringing decentralized governance to tech platforms with Andrew Hall (a16z crypto Youtube, July 2022)
- The evolution of decentralized governance with Andrew Hall (a16z crypto Youtube, July 2022)
- Toppling the Internet’s Accidental Monarchs: How to Design web3 Platform Governance by Porter Smith and Andrew Hall (a16z crypto, October 2022)
- Paying People to Participate in Governance by Ethan Bueno de Mesquita and Andrew Hall (a16z crypto, November 2022)
As a reminder: none of the following should be taken as tax, business, legal, or investment advice. See a16zcrypto.com/disclosures for more important information, including a link to a list of our investments.
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