Internet + Democracy

History's great promoters of "democracy",				...
whether they be Ancient Greek philosophers,				Let's say you are a nation of some twenty million
American or French Revolutionaries, Communists,				inhabitants, and you want to decide how to divide
or English Parliamentarians, have in every case				up the resources budgeted for education. You
meant that "everybody" in a society should be				could hardly gather the population in a room and
able to take part in decision-making of the body				ask for a show of hands. You could ask them to
politic. But how far has this ideal been realised?				make marks on pieces of paper, then collect and
And is it time that we can take it further?				count the tally; but this too would be impractical if
In none of the cases cited above were their				required for every decision. However, the
"democratic" methods completely or truly inclusive:				world-wide network of computers linked by
"everybody" variably excluded women, people of				telephone cables provides us with a vastly more
other races or ethnicities, people below a				efficient system of communication.
minimum threshold age, people without property,				Obviously, if internet connections were used to
etc. In the course of the twentieth century, the				enable popular participation in political
right to vote in elections for "representational				decision-making, it would still be very difficult to
democracy" was broadened, though those who				enforce compulsory voting by the entire adult
fell foul of the Law, or the diagnoses of				population. But perhaps voluntary, total plebiscites
psychiatric medicine, were still usually excluded.				could be efficiently and quickly conducted, so that
"Democracy", as it is claimed in modern nation				a genuinely popular decision could be made on
states, generally refers to what can be				whether a new governmental Bill should be passed
categorised more specifically as "representational				or not. Perhaps democratic representatives could
democracy" - i.e. where instead of a political				still sit in parliament, but only to argue points of
decision being made directly by the masses, it is				view, and without any exclusive voting rights. If
made by a group of regionally elected				this were the case, they might even begin to
representatives, who make decisions "on behalf"				argue issues intelligently - which they clearly don't
of the masses for the duration of a fixed term.				feel the need to do at the moment. The
Take note that, once these elected				Australian parliamentary television program
representatives are comfortably seated in the				Question Time shows very bored-looking, mostly
decision-making room, they can basically do				oldish, mostly men, sitting half-asleep and jeering
whatever they want. Though they may try to				at each other. Is this really still the best method
make decisions that will win public approval in the				we have, as a society, of deciding our collective
lead-up to the next election, the fact remains that				future?
they can make whatever decision seems best (or				Of course, if the internet were to be used for
most advantageous) to them at the time; and it				popular voting on political decisions, access to
is clear enough, in any case, that elections for				internet connections would need to be available to
democratic representatives are mostly decided				all. And data security would need to be both solid
based on haircuts (see last American presidential				and agile; hackers would potentially mount "hacking
election) and media manipulation (see any				wars" on the electoral system. If nothing else, this
Australian federal election).				could make a good premise for a science-fiction
Until recently, there existed a strong argument in				film. But perhaps internet democracy still is nothing
favour of representational democracy: that for a				more than "speculative fiction" - for I am sceptical
society of millions, direct popular decision-making				that our current elected representatives would
would be unworkably impractical. But does this				lend much support to this idea. After all, history
argument still hold? Has the internet altered our				has rarely seen political power and exclusivity
political potential as a society?				being relinquished willingly.