Plurality in Latvia

In Latvia, no translation of the book *Plurality* and no reporting on Audrey Tang or E. Glen Weyl has been found. The book's themes overlap with three local contexts: ManaBalss.lv, a citizens' initiative site that reaches parliament with 10,000 signatures; NATO's center against disinformation in Riga; and contacts with Taiwan.

Elections come only once every few years. In between, how can ordinary citizens make their voices heard in politics? Latvia, one of the three Baltic states, has had a way to collect signatures online and bring proposals to parliament for 15 years. This overlaps with the problems taken up by Plurality, the book by Audrey Tang and E. Glen Weyl, but no trace has yet been found of the book being discussed in Latvia.

In short

The research for this article found no Latvian translation of Plurality. Google News (in Latvian) returned 0 Latvian-language reports featuring Tang or Weyl (a provisional count by this site, October 2026) [1]. A full-text search of the transcripts of Tang's conversations also found none that mention Latvia.

Instead, there are three contexts that overlap with the book: ManaBalss.lv (my voice), a citizens' initiative site where 10,000 signatures bring a proposal to parliament [2]; the work against disinformation of NATO's strategic communications research center in Riga (StratCom COE) [7]; and contacts with Taiwan under the "One China" policy [10].

For example

ManaBalss.lv (My Voice). According to Latvian Wikipedia, any Latvian citizen aged 16 or over can start or sign an initiative to change the law. Initiatives that get 10,000 or more signatures and meet the legal requirements are sent to parliament (the Saeima). Identity is verified using Latvian online banking, international payment cards or an electronic ID (eID) [2].

The operators' 15th-anniversary announcement (June 2026) says that 118 citizens' initiatives won parliament's support and changed the law. They include the 2019 constitutional amendment that made parliament's election of the president an open vote. The operators say that, as far as is known, this is the only case in the world of a constitution being changed through a digital democracy tool [3].

An initiative to keep the site going (2026). ManaBalss.lv has relied on donations, but donations have fallen sharply in recent years. So the team posted an initiative on its own site asking parliament for a permanent funding mechanism. According to jauns.lv, the initiative passed 10,000 signatures in September 2026 (it was aiming for 10,300 to allow for invalid signatures, and had not yet reached that). On December 4 of the previous year, when setting the next year's budget, parliament had supported a proposal to allocate 150,000 euros to ManaBalss.lv [4].

NATO StratCom COE in Riga. This research center has been in Riga since 2014 and was founded by seven countries: Latvia, Estonia, Italy, the United Kingdom, Lithuania, Poland and Germany. According to an article by the news agency LETA published on the first day of the conference, the annual "Riga StratCom Dialogue" was in its sixth year in 2022 and was to cover topics such as countering disinformation by Russia and society's resilience to false information [7].

In more detail

The citizens' initiative system

According to LV portāls (2024), the right to submit a "kolektīvais iesniegums" (collective submission) to parliament was set out in an amendment to parliament's rules of procedure that took effect on February 2, 2012. Before that, the only way for citizens to bring a matter to parliament was a referendum [5].

The rules allow submissions by 10,000 or more citizens aged 16 or over. Signatures may be collected electronically, provided identity can be verified and data protected. Since 2023, local governments have had the same mechanism [5]. Iveta Kažoka of the think tank Providus has said that it is important for every submission to be considered seriously, even when parliament does not adopt it [5].

Different counts, different assessments

The figures for what the site has achieved differ from source to source. The operators' 15th-anniversary announcement says 118 initiatives changed the law [3]. The jauns.lv article says more than 140 initiatives reached parliament and 83 became law [4].

In 2021, there was debate in parliament over how to handle an initiative calling for euthanasia to be legalized. Janīna Kursīte-Pakule, chair of the committee in charge, said there should be a wider debate on whether 10,000 is the right number. Kursīte-Pakule also said that some initiatives are based on emotion rather than reason. To this, Kursīte-Pakule added "vismaz man pašai tā šķiet" (at least that is how it seems to me), and gave the site itself an overall positive assessment [6].

Imants Breidaks, head of the organization that runs the site, has argued that without it, citizens could influence politics only through elections "reizi četros gados" (once every four years) [4].

Disinformation and Community Notes

According to LSM (June 2026), Jānis Sārts, director of StratCom COE, set out the view that in the information war against the West, it is necessary not only to defend but to go on the offensive. Sārts also said that this discussion should begin. In the same article, the researcher Halina Padalko spoke of the importance of strengthening local communities through schools, universities and NGOs [8].

Meta's move to Community Notes, in which users add notes to posts, was reported by Kursors (March 2025). The article presented Meta's explanation that a note is published only when people with different views agree that it is helpful. It also reported experts' warnings that research on X shows the system has not managed to stop the spread of false information [9]. → Community Notes · Bridging

Contacts with Taiwan

In November 2023, Taiwan's foreign minister was due to give a lecture at Rīga Stradiņš University in Riga. Asked by LSM, Latvia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs replied that it keeps to the "One China" policy on the basis of the joint communiqué signed with China in 1994. For that reason, it said, the government has no official contacts with Taiwan, and no government representative planned to meet the minister. Rihards Kols, chair of parliament's foreign affairs committee, on the other hand, announced plans to meet the minister and said that members of parliament meeting the minister does not go against the policy [10].

Lithuanian Wikipedia writes that in 1992–93 Latvia recognized both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China (Taiwan) [11]. The head of the Taipei mission in Riga also served as head of the Taiwanese representative office opened in Lithuania in 2021 [12]. → Plurality in Lithuania

An investigative report by Re:Baltica (2019) sees the main aims of China's soft power (influence through culture and diplomacy) in the Baltic states as obstructing contacts with the Dalai Lama and spreading the worldview of "viena Ķīna, divas sistēmas" (one China, two systems), which recognizes the sovereignty of neither Taiwan nor Tibet. As an example, it describes how in 2015 Ojārs Ēriks Kalniņš, then chair of parliament's foreign affairs committee, after a protest phone call from the Chinese ambassador, tried to persuade colleagues not to receive Tibetan representatives in parliament. Kalniņš told Re:Baltica that this was not a threat but diplomacy [13].

What is debated

Is 10,000 signatures a lot or a little? The committee chair in charge said there should be a wide debate on whether 10,000 is the right number. The title of the LV portāls article is also "10 tūkstoši parakstu – daudz vai maz?" (10,000 signatures – a lot or a little?) [6].
The achievement figures come from the operators. The claim to be the world's only case of a constitution changed this way, and the counts of initiatives, are figures from the operators or from individual articles, and they do not match one another [3][4].
How close to get to Taiwan. The government did not meet Taiwan's minister, citing the "One China" policy, while a member of parliament planned to, so positions split. Views of China's influence also differ between Re:Baltica and the explanation of Kalniņš, who was involved. Each was reported as the position of the person speaking [10][13].
Thin sources. This search found no Latvian-language material on the book, Tang or Weyl. The English edition of LSM, the news site Delfi.lv and the national library catalog were not checked [1].

Where it fits in Plurality

The Latvian sources mention neither the book nor its people. Even so, they overlap with the book's arguments in several ways.

ManaBalss.lv is a real example of digital democracy and civic tech. The operators asked parliament for a permanent funding mechanism "digitālās demokrātijas infrastruktūrai" (for digital democracy infrastructure), citing as a model the way public media receive public money while keeping editorial independence [4]. This overlaps with the book's discussion of digital public infrastructure.

The reporting on Community Notes conveys the idea of valuing agreement between people with different views, as in Community Notes and bridging [9]. This search, however, found no source linking these to Plurality.

Articles on other countries and regions:

Sources

List of forks of pluralitybook/plurality, and queries on GitHub and Google News (in Latvian) (2026-10-02) — https://github.com/pluralitybook/plurality/forks ［CC0］
Latvian Wikipedia, "ManaBalss.lv" — https://lv.wikipedia.org/wiki/ManaBalss.lv ［CC BY-SA 4.0］
ManaBalss.lv, "ManaBalss svin 15 gadu jubileju: 118 pilsoņu iniciatīvas panākušas izmaiņas Latvijas likumos" (2026-06-08) — https://manabalss.lv/articles/manabalss-svin-15-gadu-jubileju-118-pilsonu-iniciativas-panakusas-izmainas-latvijas-likumos
jauns.lv, "Savākti vairāk nekā 10 000 parakstu platformas "Mana balss" turpmākai pastāvēšanai" (2026-09-11) — https://jauns.lv/raksts/zinas/728341-savakti-vairak-neka-10-000-parakstu-platformas-mana-balss-turpmakai-pastavesanai
LV portāls, "Kolektīvie iesniegumi – veids, kā sabiedrībai iesaistīties valsts politikas veidošanā" (2024-02-07) — https://lvportals.lv/norises/360050-kolektivie-iesniegumi-veids-ka-sabiedribai-iesaistities-valsts-politikas-veidosana-2024
LV portāls, "10 tūkstoši parakstu – daudz vai maz?" (2021-03) — https://lvportals.lv/viedokli/326546-10-tukstosi-parakstu-daudz-vai-maz-2021
Sargs.lv, "Rīgā norisināsies konference "Riga StratCom Dialogue"" (2022-05-25, LETA) — https://www.sargs.lv/lv/sabiedriba/2022-05-25/riga-norisinasies-konference-riga-stratcom-dialogue
LSM, "NATO izcilības centra direktors: Informācijas karā Rietumiem ir jāpāriet uzbrukumā" (2026-06-03) — https://www.lsm.lv/raksts/zinas/arzemes/03.06.2026-nato-izcilibas-centra-direktors-informacijas-kara-rietumiem-ir-japariet-uzbrukuma.a649988/
Kursors, "“Meta” savās platformās nākamnedēļ sāks testēt jauno faktu pārbaudes sistēmu" (2025-03-15) — https://kursors.lv/2025/03/15/meta-savas-platformas-nakamnedel-saks-testet-jauno-faktu-parbaudes-sistemu/
LSM, "Taivānas ārlietu ministra vizītei Rīgā atsaucas Saeimas Ārlietu komisijas vadītājs Kols; valdības pārstāvji netiksies" (2023-11-07) — https://www.lsm.lv/raksts/zinas/latvija/07.11.2023-taivanas-arlietu-ministra-vizitei-riga-atsaucas-saeimas-arlietu-komisijas-vaditajs-kols-valdibas-parstavji-netiksies.a530510/
Lithuanian Wikipedia, "Lietuvos ir Taivano santykiai" — https://lt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lietuvos_ir_Taivano_santykiai ［CC BY-SA 4.0］
15min, "Taivaniečių atstovybė Lietuvoje pradeda darbą" (2021-11-18) — https://www.15min.lt/naujiena/aktualu/lietuva/taivanieciu-atstovybe-lietuvoje-pradeda-darba-56-1599582
Re:Baltica, "Ķīnas maigās varas rupjā seja" (2019-08-20) — https://rebaltica.lv/2019/08/kinas-maigas-varas-rupja-seja/

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