The Collective Dynamics Lab designs next-generation voting systems, decision interfaces, and ritual-aware governance tools for organisations that need to hold complex, contested decisions together.
Most efforts to fix democracy focus on mechanics — better counting rules, new technologies, voter registration drives. The Collective Dynamics Lab starts from a different place: voting is not a neutral machine. It is a cultural superpower.
One of the few organisations where ritual is treated as a first-class design element alongside rules, data, and code, CDL exists because our societies have been steadily stripping ritual out of politics and voting — and in doing so have weakened the very processes meant to hold us together.
"Institutions don't just need better aggregation rules. They need better rituals of argument and agreement."
Housed within the London College of Political Technology, CDL offers institutional partners a dedicated environment to prototype and test interfaces of democracy: next-generation voting systems and decision experiences that explicitly include ritual, narrative, and psychological acceptance as core design parameters.
"Voting evolved not to discover what a group prefers — but to keep it from fracturing."
The core thesis of The Majority Myth — the research foundation behind CDL. Voting is a ritualised coordination process whose authority is psychological rather than arithmetical. Its true object is acceptance, not victory.
Three goals for every democratic process
The Research Foundation
How Voting Really Works, Why It Is Failing, and How We Can Fix It. A decade of research into the questions: What is Voting? Where did it come from? How does it work?
Buy the BookTraces the evolution of voting from animal herding behaviours and indigenous rituals — not ancient Greece — to modern elections and digital platforms.
Defines ritual in collective decisions — a framework applicable to any agreement procedure, from corporate AGMs to constitutional referendums.
Builds a new description of voting from first principles — not as a measuring device, but as a ritual of adhesion whose primary job is fracture avoidance.
Enables non-partisan perspectives on what voting is for, how it operates, and how it can be best used in different contexts for different goals.
"Majority seems like a calculation that produces validity — but this counting is like a baptism. A symbolic sanctification."
The Majority Myth · Chapter 3
"Voting is not an evaluation of choices; it acts upon us. The participants' attitude is the change."
The Majority Myth · Chapter 8
"A 'bad' decision that keeps the group whole is often evolutionarily superior to a 'better' decision that fractures it."
The Majority Myth · Chapter 2
"The 50% threshold is not a mathematical truth — it is a ritual line we make sacred."
The Majority Myth · Introduction
"Designers of voting systems should consider participants' attitudes toward the endeavour as carefully as casinos are designed for the experience of gamblers."
The Majority Myth · Chapter 9
"We've stripped away the ritual and narrative elements while pretending the remaining mechanism can carry the whole load."
The Majority Myth · Chapter 7
"'The People Have Spoken' is clearly a ritual incantation. The community cannot be weighed like a material."
The Majority Myth · Chapter 4
"If you recognise voting as a ritual of adhesion, you start designing for the whole experience — how disagreement is staged, how acceptance is produced."
The Majority Myth · Conclusion
CDL's unique framework treats the full decision journey as an experience to be deliberately crafted, not a procedure to be administered.
Translating philosophical, historical, and behavioural insights about ritual, voting, and legitimacy into concrete design constraints for real democratic processes.
Designing the full decision journey — framing, deliberation, voting, outcome communication — as a ritual experience that generates acceptance, not just records preferences.
Live and simulated experiments with institutional partners, comparing alternative rituals and interfaces with a focus on both decision quality and emotional/relational outcomes.
A living archive of collective choice systems — courts, assemblies, lotteries, indigenous councils, digital platforms — to inspire and benchmark new ritual designs.
Each CDL project is a live experiment in ritual and interface design, with a concrete prototype attached.
SCOTUS-style and structured multi-round voting patterns as rituals for generating clear, communicable mandates rather than narrow, brittle wins.
Layered voting experiences — intensity, reasons, conditions — that surface what truly matters to stakeholders and ritualize how those nuances are expressed.
Interfaces that let thousands participate in a shared decision ritual while still allowing deep exploration of individuals and sub-groups. A petition signed in sound.
Translating insights from indigenous and traditional decision rituals — including Arhuaco council practices — into modern, tech-mediated formats that institutions can adopt responsibly.
A complete, searchable resource for collective agreement systems throughout history — from Roman augury and Florentine sortition to digital DAOs and corporate AGMs.
Talks, writing, seminars, and media collaborations spreading the insight that voting is a cultural superpower — and that richer rituals of agreement can be deliberately designed.
Ed Maklouf on the evolution of voting, the ritual of democracy, and why our elections are breaking.
Financial Times
The Truth About Voting and Its Origins
Why the story that voting was invented by ancient Greeks is wrong — and what the real origins tell us about democracy today.
Read ArticleTimes Radio · Ryan Tubridy
Current Voting Systems Aren't Working — And Here's Why
Ed Maklouf speaks to Ryan Tubridy about how every voter could add their rationale alongside their vote, and what it would change.
Watch InterviewBetter Known Podcast
Ed Maklouf — Six Things That Should Be Better Known
A wide-ranging conversation covering the evolution of voting, the Arhuaco of the Sierra Nevada, and the framework behind The Majority Myth.
Listen NowUNFAIR · Substack
Exploring the Hidden Rules Behind Voting and Collectives
Ed's ongoing newsletter — essays, observations, and research dispatches on voting systems, ritual, and democratic innovation.
Subscribe FreeThe Majority Myth · Book
How Voting Really Works, Why It Is Failing, and How We Can Fix It
The definitive account of voting as evolved behaviour — from animal herds to papal conclaves to modern elections. Available now.
Get the BookEd Maklouf — Voting Systems Designer
Follow Ed's professional updates, research commentary, and announcements about CDL, seminars, and upcoming events.
FollowProjects to protect democracy have proliferated. They locate problems in money, election interference, dialogue failures, or systemic rules. The assumption is that collective decision is a mechanism that requires tweaking.
Few projects consider whether this is a useful description, and even fewer start from first principles about the nature of collective decision protocols.
Based on research published in The Majority Myth and findings from peace-building, CDL treats voting as a social-psychological set of behaviours transacted through rituals, whose primary purpose is the generation of attitudes of acceptance and cohesion.
"The First Vote" — A.R. Waud, 1867. Every act of voting is freighted with ceremony and meaning beyond the count.
CDL's work is grounded in
Founder & Principal Investigator
Author of The Majority Myth and researcher in voting systems, ritual, and collective choice. Ed began research work on group communications at Stanford University and has conducted extensive fieldwork with the Arhuaco of the Sierra Nevada. He is host of the UNFAIR podcast and documentary filmmaker.
Dean, London College of Political Technology
CDL is developed with Ed Saperia and housed at Newspeak House, linking it to the broader ecosystem of political technology, experimental governance, and civic innovation that the London College of Political Technology has cultivated.
CDL's work is enriched by a cross-disciplinary network spanning activism, diplomacy, civic tech, philosophy, sociology, psychology, history, indigenous traditions, design, and media.
Diplomat & Collective Action Practitioner
Co-Founder, Avaaz — Global Civic Participation
Participatory Budgeting Practitioner
Science Writer & Narrative Design
Civic Innovation & Participatory Design