Participation

Know this topic well? Help others and get FREE products!

The modern, mainstream democratic ideal has been republican or representative democracy, but the original Greek ideal was direct democratic participation in all major decisions by all citizens. To some extent even administrative actions were directly democratic, insofar as various executive and judicial functions were determined by lot. Along with direct democracy, two general terms around which efforts to theoretically and practically promote such broad contemporary involvement of citizens in their own governance are those of participatory and anticipatory democracy. In as much as both are argued to be especially facilitated by advanced telecommunications technologies such as television and the Internet, terms of choice range from digital and e-democracy to teledemocracy.

The modern roots of contemporary direct democracy ideals are nineteenth-century anarchist experiments in Europe and populous and progressive movements in the United States. Populism, which reflected agrarian interests, and progressivism, more urban based, sought to institutionalize the citizen legislative initiative, the referendum, and the recall. The participatory democracy movement itself has been closely associated with theories of strong, radical, grass roots, deliberative, and consensus democracy. Anticipatory democracy gives direct democracy a futurist spin. Bioregional democracy is a related notion stressing environmental or ecological issues. Cyberdemocracy stresses virtual reality both as means and as end.

The unifying thread in such diverse direct democracy movements is that all citizens, not just their periodically elected representatives, have rights and responsibilities to contribute to collective decision making. Independent of arguments for such rights and responsibilities, and analyses of the strengths and weaknesses of participatory democracy, one of the most well-developed efforts to promote citizen participation through advanced telecommunications is the Direct Democracy Campaign (DDC) in Great Britain. Using the motto Let the people decide, the DDC has advanced a number of specific proposals. The popular initiative would require the government to hold a binding referendum on an issue if 2 percent of the electorate submitted a petition to this effect. The popular veto would allow 1 percent of the electorate to challenge any existing legislation and call for a binding referendum. Moreover according to the DDC web site, "the era of pencil crosses on paper must give way to an age of secure electronic communication."

In the United States, although the theory of participatory democracy emerged in left-wing political circles during the 1960s, proposals for the utilization of advanced telecommunications technologies were promoted more in right-wing political circles during the 1970s. Post 1960s left-wing work moved in the direction of trying to get citizens directly involved in processes of scientific and engineering design decision making, using such means as consensus conferences and by often questioning the adequacy of electronic or virtual participation (Sclove 1995).

Liberal theorists have on occasion utilized measurement theory, especially as applied in psychology by S. S. Stevens (1946), to make some critical assessment of representative democracy and propose reforms that might serve to attract more citizen involvement or enhance the justice of decision making. Among various mathematical or scientific models for enhancing the influence of minority viewpoints or interests are, for example, possibilities for proportional representation, which again might be facilitated by technological means.

Right-wing work, by contrast, has been more populist and positive about electronic democracy. Indeed conservative futurist Alvin Toffler has argued that technological change at once demands intensified, anticipatory democracy as a "continuing plebiscite on the future" (Toffler 1970, p. 422) and provides the "imaginative new technologies" (Toffler 1970, p. 424) to make this possible. Clem Bezold (1978) further advanced the idea of anticipatory democracy. Brian Martin (demarchy) and Robin Hanson (futarchy) have proposed other related ideas appealing to or utilizing market theory.

Outside Great Britain and the United States, efforts to promote and practice participatory democracy utilizing advanced telecommunications technologies exist in, among other countries, Switzerland, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Often these efforts exist most vigorously at the local or regional levels. As expected, they have also sponsored numerous web sites.

Historically there have been three main objections to direct democracy. One is that it provides for no check on emotional responses to complex situations. Another is that most people do not have time or interest enough to become sufficiently educated in the issues to participate intelligently. A third is that there is simply no technical means by which it could work in a modern, large-scale nation-state.

According to Toffler (1980) all three objections can be met. There could be structural or constitutional requirements for a cooling-off period or a second vote on certain issues. Increased affluence and leisure give people more time for politics, and in fact when offered the chance many citizens take advantage of opportunities to become informed about an issue. Social learning generally takes place through trial and error. Finally contemporary communications technologies, especially the Internet, make direct electronic democracy realistically feasible.

More specific questions about the utilization of advanced technological means of communication have also been raised. Has C-SPAN improved democratic intelligence? To what extent can the Internet promote critical reflection and engagement with the nonvirtual world in which political action ultimately takes place?

Democracy;; Participation.

Bezold, Clem, ed. (1978). Anticipatory Democracy. New York: Random House.

Sclove, Richard E. (1995). Democracy and Technology. New York: Guilford Press. Widely influential work in liberal circles.

Stevens, S. S. [Stanley Smith]. (1946). "On the Theory of Scales of Measurement." Science 103: 677–680.

Toffler, Alvin. (1970). Future Shock. New York: Random House.

Toffler, Alvin. (1980). The Third Wave. New York: William Morrow. Influential in conservative political circles.

This is the complete article, containing 890 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page).