[p2p-research] Is Web 2.0 Really Democratic?

[Michel Bauwens]

Marco,

between direct plebiscitary democracy and plutocratic representative
democracy, there are other and complementary forms of democracy, based on
democratic deliberation ... it's not one or the other ...

the web is a tool for transparency, but not only, but it cannot be seen
separate from larger social processes to bring back democracy,

Michel

On Sat, Oct 11, 2008 at 5:59 PM, M. Fioretti <mfioretti at nexaima.net> wrote:

> On Fri, Oct 10, 2008 20:00:00 PM +0700, Michel Bauwens wrote:
> > Robin Good launches a debate on this important topic, see http://
> > www.masternewmedia.org/is_web_20_really_democratic/
>
> the two parts I liked the most are:
>
> 1) Rheingold's answers to the first two questions:
>
> "Is this participation really democratic?"
>
> "Or is this a democracy paradox, where everyone can interact but the
> decision making places are all outside the net?"
>
> I fully agree with everything he wrote in those two answers.
>
> 2) This comment from Michel:
>
> > expression is not deliberation. Most Web 2.0 platforms are not very
> > well suited for the kind of complex deliberation that would be
> > needed to create a context for decision-making
>
> and I add: the same "not being well suited for decision making" could
> also be said for e-voting as is today.
>
> The web can and should guarantee much more effective denunciation of
> wrongs, as well as information and checking of what the people in
> charge are doing and why, without intermediaries:
>
>       Making much faster and easier to find relationships between
>       Parliament members and multinationals
>
>       making mashups or instant dynamic maps which show that only the
>       senators who live far from some place _or_ own stocks in
>       nuclear companies approved the building of a nuclear plant in
>       that site
>
>       search engines which list everything a candidate said on a
>       given argument, to see if he or she was coherent
>
>       entering your ZIP code and knowing instantly how your taxes
>       were spent, ie which percentage went to each city, county or
>       state budget voice, and why, that is thanks to which law and
>       who voted it.
>
>
> this kind of things (=more control and accountability), yes, the more
> the better, I devoted one chapter to the Family Guide in the signature
> to this. But e-voting, instant voting, online decision making to get
> rid of representatives... all these things scare me like hell and I
> hope the last two never come to politics.
>
> That is stuff which is OK for voting who should be expelled from a
> reality shows like Big Brother, not for stuff which has real impact
> on real people lives. I see in them:
>
> - too many possibilities for big scale tampering
>
> - (for national politics only, not necessarily for local
>  administration) inherent limits: the world is too complex for
>  everybody to be competent enough on every possible issue, or have
>  time to study in depth the matter of every possible decision.
>
> Marco
>
> --
> Your own civil rights and the quality of your life heavily depend on how
> software is used *around* you:            http://digifreedom.net/node/84
>
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