In
Chapter 10 of The Future of Technological Civilization by Edward Woodhouse, it
is suggested that an internet-based democracy is a radical but possible
alternative to the current government. This idea is offered because the
internet is accessible to everyone, therefore it would be possible to achieve a
more democratic model in which more people's opinions and concerns can be
voiced. I do not agree that an internet-based democracy could replace our
current government, however I believe that the internet could be used as a tool
with which to improve representation. By incorporating a system in which
citizens are "called to serve" in an online governing body, one would
be able to integrate many suggestions made by Woodhouse in past chapters and other
sources to better our democratic system: random selection and Yarrusso's blank
spaces.
Similar
to jury duty, citizens could be randomly selected to be involved in an online
governing body. Mathematically, random selection is the most effective method
to achieve perfect representation in such a diverse country (Woodhouse, p.
114). This type of selection would guarantee a wide variety of education
levels, occupations, ethnic backgrounds, and financial statuses would be
represented rather than the "1%" representing us right now (Gummov,
2014). The advantage to having this system be organized through the internet is
that representation from all 50 states could be easily achieved. Additionally,
citizens would have the freedom to respond at their leisure in their own time
zone (i.e. after work, after school). Naturally, some sort of restrictions
would need to be enforced so that citizens still participate in these governing
bodies in a timely manner, however that can be addressed as this system is
develop further.
Assuming
that a secure government website could be established, this randomly selected
group of individuals could be given access to publish and view local, state,
and national concerns. Yarrusso's suggestion of offering blank spaces for the
public to argue pros and cons per issue would be essential to encouraging
educated individuals to provide knowledge and perspective on: possible
solutions and avenues to achieve those solutions. The reason why these blank
spaces would be edited only by the randomly selected governing body is simply
to force citizens to become educated and initiate arguments. However, the
public would still have access to read all the information on the topics argued
in real-time. Then, citizens that were not called to serve could become involved
of their own volition if they notice an illegitimate argument or that a certain
perspective has not yet been shared. "If you're an informed truth seeker,
you'd be eager to give the public a clear, cogent argument justifying your
position" (Yarrusso, 2014). Volunteers would be able to give their opinion
from a constructive and passionate stance, whereas the selected citizens could
lay the groundwork on the issue.
Random
selection can be used to construct a governing body and guarantee fair
representation of the country's diversity. The same randomly selected governing
body of citizens could then present arguments on various topics of concern on a
secure website. This would force people to become educated on important
societal topics and would also encourage enthusiastic and passionate volunteers
to become involved and improve representation. By incorporating these ideas,
the nation would be able to utilize the internet as an effective tool to
improve our democracy.
References
Gummov, Jodie. “Congress is Officially a Millionaire’s Club.” AlterNet, 10 Jan. 2014. Web. 3 March 2014.
Woodhouse, Edward. The Future of Technological Civilization. University Readers, 2013. Print.
Yarrusso, Carmen. "An Elegantly Simple Way to Revolutionize Government." Truthout, 8 Feb. 2014. Web. 20 March 2014.
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