Participation and/or Deliberation? The Internet as a Tool for Achieving Radical Democratic Aims

Abstract

Cohen and Fung (2004) point to the recent resurgence of ‘radical democratic’ thought and politics that they have contributed to through their scholarly work and political activism. This has arisen, they argue, in response to the inability of national governments to govern effectively, especially so in a global age that has reduced national economic sovereignty, and to the increasingly obvious chasm between citizens and their representatives in ‘conventional’ democracies, reflected in reductions in memberships of political parties, voting at national and local elections, and so on. Calls for radical democratic change also clearly have a global dimension. Democracy ought to be both deeper and broader. Issues such as poverty, the uneven impact of environmental change, working conditions in poorer economies, and access to healthcare have animated activists to develop transnational social movements and networks and to call for the extension of democracy beyond the confines of the nation-state.