This is one of nearly a thousand foresight statements shared by people from around the world. To return to the Voices of the People home page or to refine your search, click here.
Name: Jason Reader
From: Virginia
Bio: Political Scientist, concentration international relations
Area of Expertise: Advocate/Voice of the People
Topic: Global Relationships/Politics
Headline: Direct Democracy
Nutshell: The Internet will make the dream of practical direct democracy a technologically feasible reality.
Vision:The Internet has established a communications network so intricate that at any given time millions upon millions of people can be in virtually simultaneous communication with each other. Democracy has had an historical problem of size, both population and geographic, in that the larger the country the more difficult it has been democracy to take hold thereby leading to the formation of quasi-democratic republics. Direct democracy has been an impractical dream due the size constraints of the present nation-state system.
The Internet provides a unique opportunity for individuals involvement in the political process to an extent that it is presently feasible for referendums to be conducted entirely online. Referendums are not a far cry from direct democracy. In the close future, the Internet will achieve near universal accessibility in that people no matter their circumstance will be able to have access to the internet. The universality of the Internet will make direct democracy technologically feasible.
The Internet is also creating an global community where borders are virtually non-existent and nation-states are of negilible importance. The rise of the global nation built upon the online society that is the Internet will be the nail in the coffin of the nation-state in its eventual fall. The rise of the global nation will be on the back of the direct democracy made feasible by the technological marvel that is the Internet.
Date Submitted: November 11, 2004
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