Grassroots democracy will be expressed by individuals sitting quietly in their kitchens and living rooms, who are linked electronically to their fellow citizens and elected representatives, and who manipulate wired and wireless computers, television screens, and keypads.
Predictor: Grossman, Lawrence K.
Prediction, in context:In his 1995 book “The Electronic Republic: Reshaping Democracy in the Information Age,” Lawrence Grossman, former president of NBC News and PBS, writes: ”In the future, grassroots democracy will not have to be expressed by citizens pouring out-of-doors, crowding into town squares, or marching on Washington, D.C., state capitols, or city halls. More often, grassroots democracy will be expressed by individuals sitting quietly in their kitchens and living rooms, who are linked electronically to their fellow citizens and elected representatives, and who manipulate wired and wireless computers, television screens, and keypads. Such a scenario for the future fulfills the prophecy made last century by France’s Tocqueville and Britain’s Lord Bryce, two of history’s more astute observers of the American democratic process: ‘By whatever political laws men are governed in the age of equality,’ Tocqueville wrote, ‘it may be foreseen that faith in public opinion will become for them a species of religion, and the majority of its ministering prophet.’ Similarly, Lord Bryce predicted a time in America when ‘public opinion would not only reign but govern,’ and the will of the majority would ‘become ascertainable at all times, and without the need of its passing through a body of representatives, possibly even without the need of voting machinery at all.’ For the American people, that time will soon be at hand. For many it is already here.”
Biography:Lawrence Grossman wrote the book “The Electronic Republic: Reshaping Democracy in an Information Age” (Penguin, 1995). The former executive at NBC and PBS urged people to realize that digital communications had altered how things can and should be done. (Author/Editor/Journalist.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Global Relationships/Politics
Subtopic: Democracy
Name of publication: The Electronic Republic (book)
Title, headline, chapter name: Chapter 7: The Shape of the Electronic Republic: The Citizens, the Congress, the Presidency, and the Judiciary
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Page 157
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Guarino, Jennifer Anne