Electronic Democracy

Abstract

Electronic democracy is the term coined to describe the use of new technologies of communication to enhance political participation and the exchange of political information. While electronic democracy has been advocated and experimented with since the early 1980s, the advent of the Internet has intensified the discussion of, and interest in, the topic. For some, electronic democracy represents a chance to revive the flagging fortunes of liberal democracy by increasing the opportunity for political participation and the dissemination of political information. For others, it represents a chance to recover the ancient Athenian ideal of direct democracy in which an electronic agora of chat-rooms replaces the public space of old. For yet others, electronic democracy entails not the enhancement of democracy (in either guise), but its demise in populist consumerism and state manipulation as political choice is reduced to a registering of instant preferences and the political system expands its capacity for surveillance and manipulation. Whatever position is adopted, it is clear that the debate about electronic democracy, though dealing with new technical possibilities, echoes an age-old debate about the virtues and vices of democracy.