In this section the audience and the world of The Circle are introduced to the the innovation that will supposedly “close the circle”: Demoxie. And while seemingly advantageous at first, a closer look reveals its innate values that are un-democratic in nature.

When first introduced by Eamon, he frames it as the next logical step in The Circle’s progression as a company. He reasons that since they already have more information than is usually required for voter registration/identification and their services are used by more people than vote in any given election, a TruYou profile should automatically register someone to vote. I believe that this is a fairly rational idea and what that I might even support, given that a company like The Circle already existed. For me, what degrades this idea is Mae’s addition to it, her “one step further.”

Mae’s “one step further” is actually more like 10 steps further. She appears to arrive logically at her proposal that the government require every legal adult to create a Circle account and use their services. However when you break down her argument it boils down to something like this:

The government passes laws for certain mandatory things. We have to pay taxes and serve on juries. Ergo, we should require people to create a Circle account.

She frames this as simply passing a law requiring people to vote, and insists that The Circle is the only entity with the infrastructure to enforce this. But this is a completely invalid and unprecedented measure. Requiring people to vote is one thing, but to do by subscribing to the services of an outside company is quite another. It is true that there are certain mandatory laws that require us to pay for the services of companies and not government agencies, but these companies are generally heavily regulated to insure consumer safety, whereas The Circle is not monitored in this way.

From here, Mae proceeds to take her “one step further” to the limit by insisting that  every citizen not only be required to have an account through The Circle and vote, but that they also must use The Circle for many government services that Mae and others have deemed to be an inconvenience when not channeled through one unifying service.

Now it is true that this would be an effective way to increase voter turnout and streamline government operation, but at what cost? Stenton suggests that it “might even eliminate Congress” and “much of Washington”. If red flags aren’t popping up in the minds of the readers at this point, I’m not sure what it would take. The idea that a private company could eliminate and take over most of the core functions of the government should be extremely alarming to anyone with democratic principles. The idea of placing power in the hands of the government is that citizens are able to influence the government, something that they cannot do with The Circle.

Beyond this The Circle is becoming, if it is not already, a monopoly. It has amassed so great an amount of influence on the internet that no other company is able to viably compete for a share in the market. So the fact that the government in the book is being submissive to it rather than attacking it should be indicative of how un-democratic The Circle and Demoxie truly are.