Cyberdemocracy Challenging Representation: Should we be Concerned?

Cyberdemocracy Challenging Representation: Should we be Concerned?

The recent rise of the Internet along with the subsequent evolution of communications technology raises many questions about the possible effects it will have on politics in America. Two basic debates have been born out of these questions. The first debate is over the question of what effect the Internet will have on the political world. Some predict a cyberdemocracy revolution leading to direct democracy in the United States. Others believe there will be little or no change in the American political system. The second debate regards the question of whether or not an Internet-based direct democracy is desirable. The battleground for this conflict lies at the heart of American political philosophy. To make a judgment on this second question, one must look to the origins of American representative democracy and decide whether the principles on which the system was founded hold true in the age of the Internet. I contend that they do hold true and that direct democracy is no more valid today than it was two hundred years ago. Regarding the first debate, I argue that the recent leap in communications technology will not single-handedly produce a significant change in the nature of American politics.

With an abundance of scholars and journalists prophesying the birth of a direct digital democracy and praising the Internet as the institution to make it all happen, it is easy for Americans to be swept into the happy wagon of change. After all, democracy is all about everyone having a voice, right? What better way of ensuring this voice than to have the people participate in decision-making directly? The Internet vastly reduces the costs of exchanging i...

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...ernet is a powerful tool for communication, but must not serve as an excuse to adopt an inferior form of government.

Works Cited

Applbaum, Arthur. “Failure in the CyberMarketplace of Ideas.” democracy.com? Ed. Elaine Kamarck and Joseph Nye. New Hamphire: Hollis, 1999. 19-34.

Davis, Richard. The Web of Politics. New York: Oxford UP, 1999.

Hamilton, Alexander, James Madison, and John Jay. The Federalist Papers. New York. 1787.

Harwood, Paul G., and J. Celeste Lay. “Surfing Alone: The Internet as a Facilitator of Social and Political Capital?” University of Maryland. College Park. 2001.

Ornstein, Norman. “Deliberative Democracy Headed for the Dark Side?” APSA Legislative Studies Section Newsletter. http://www.apsanet.org/~lss/ Newsletter/jul00/legnews.html. Vol. 23. No. 1. July 2000.

Plato. Book IV. The Republic. 560a-564b.