Week 6 - Lecture Content - Democracy?

This weeks lecture content went through ideas about democracy, cyber politics, edemocracy and liberal democracy and its different forms. The part that I found most intriguing was the discussion on democracy and how it is currently seen as the 'end point' of of political evolution, a statement I find hard to agree with.

I am currently completing my fourth year of my Urban and Environmental Planning Degree and one of my current courses is called 'Public Involvement and Community Development' and consequently I have been exposed to a substantial amount of academic journals on the topic and on neoliberal thought. I appears evident from many of my prescribed academic articles that there is beginning to be a push away from top down management to community empowerment (Ansell & Gash, 2008). Collaborative governance where people get to directly be involved in decision making is becoming a reality due to the possibilities created by the internet and new developments in communication technology. More and more it appears that people can have a voice, millions of people can communicate in a single space and be involved in matters that are physically located thousands of kilometers away from them.

Is there really no greater form of political representation that representative democracy? I find myself highly critical.

The problems with representative democracy can be rattled off by anyone with something to say on politics. Corruption, lies, dishonesty, media manipulation and more. Regardless of how much better than hereditary monarchy, constitutional monarch or other forms of governance democracy is, there is still room for improvement and the possibility of mass referendum style voting on political issues can really bring the power into the hands of the people more and more. Many of the elements of democracy are irreplaceable but there are certainly areas where people having more power before and after election periods that should be improved. Hoven (2005) stated that;

There are many optimistic views on the way the Internet may revitalize and reinvigorate our democracies. Many internet-supported democratic experiments have been undertaken in the last 10 years and the experimentation continues (p. 51)

I found this article by Hoven interesting and agree that there is certainly space for eDemocracy to improve the democratic processes in the western world.

Ansell, C. & Gash, A. (2008). Collaborative governance in theory and politics. Journal of Public Administration 

        Research & Theory, 18; 543-71.

Hoven, J. (2005). E-democracy, E-contestation and the monitorial citizen. Ethics and Information Technology, 

        7:51-59.