Global e-based Democracy

Global e-based Democracy

Truly democratic government "of the people, for the people and by the people" has been a very rare occurrence in the history of the humanity. When it has happened it has led to a florescence of cultural creativity and a renaissance of development that has had a profound impact on human society and history far in disproportion to its actual size of involvement. Democracy releases pent-up social forces for production that are otherwise frustrated by predominant authoritarian power structures. If modern countries want to further develop and modernize their economies, they can do nothing better than to promote genuine democratic values in their own society and to open these societies up to genuine democratic development. Unfortunately, the majority of governmental regimes today remain strongly authoritarian, and even many state societies that are democratic or republican in orientation have a top-heavy bureaucratic-administrative structure that tends to hinder action and stifle initiative and independence upon a grass-roots level.

The global availability of the web, and the information revolution entailed by it, also means that for the first time in human history, people may freely and openly communicate on issues in a global forum. Not all people on earth are equally connected to the Internet, but the availability of the Internet is increasing daily. Making the Internet more openly and affordably available for more people on earth is an important step in the future development of human civilization.

Democracy of the Internet is a both a political and an economic concept. People can vote not only on public decisions, share information, express their opinions and debate issues, via the internet, but they also regularly engage in commerce via the Internet that is growing in volume and is soon become the mainstay of the global economy. Each time people purchase a product, whether it is a computer, an automobile, or a pack of cigarettes, they cast a vote in favor of the company that produced that product, and also, implicitly, in favor of the entire institutional apparatus upon which that company is based. People can also refuse to vote for a product, a company or a certain style of economy, and if this is done collectively, can lead to a boycott on that particular product.

Thus it is easy to understand that if and when enough people come together and become effectively organized, they cumulative have a great deal of power to change and influence things in the world, when individually they have little or no power at all. Of course, leaders, executives and politicians the world over know and fear this very thing, and that is why they regularly invest great amounts of resources to the task of keeping people misinformed and disunited.

Understanding the role that democracy must play in the future development of human civilization, requires also an understanding of some other basic concepts that are related to issues of democratic government.