Online democracy vs real democracy
One could argue in detail whether the disctinction between online democracy and real democracy as discussed in this Global Times article is slightly off, but it still is interesting how the contribution of online discussion fora and citizen media to public opinion formation is taken on here. The experts quoted are from academic institutions, but as the Public School of Public Administration is the most important civil servants training facility, you have something like a semi-official approach to e-democracy here. Let's see how it turns out.
http://opinion.globaltimes.cn/editor-picks/2010-01/497812.html
posted by Thomas @ 9:06 AM
2 Comments:
At 10:32 PM,
ideas said…
Shouldn't the people who use the Internet be the ones to govern the Internet? When I think of democracy online, I do not think of how web communications can affect offline governments. I think of how people can organize the government of the Internet online.
Constitution of Postmasters
At 9:21 AM,
Thomas said…
I think there are clear and straightforward ways how electronic communication can support "government" (as in: extending the reach, opening additional feedback and transaction channels, etc.). That is not to say that there is a more fundamental opportunity to create governance models based on user participation or user involvement. A lot of internet governance, in particular the technical standards used in the Internet, have been created in such ways, and it seems to be working fine. I am not too sure how far you can widen the reach of user participation and still maintain an efficient way of safeguarding and improving network infrastructure? it might be a matter of what the EU keeps calling co-regulation or regulated self-regulation that is required, user (and industry) responsibility in a safety net of commonly agreed laws, regulations, procedures.
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