The downfall of democracy?
Until I chatted to Chris Bond of the Yorkshire Post last week, I hadn’t really thought about this topic for a while. But take 20 years off today’s date (or even 10 for that matter), and we all lived in a world essentially without the internet. So without twitter, facebook, blogs, google, or even email or SMS. We lived in a world where communications relied on limited one-to-one (face to face or telephone) or broadcast (TV) and publishing (newspapers). I know it sounds obvious and trite now that we’re all into Web 2,3,4 etc, but I know I don’t pause enough to consider what that change still means.
In Politics, Harold Wilson famously said a week can be a long time. On the other hand, true power changes only every 4-5 years or so at election time.
And because of that, it’s only recent elections (most notably Obama in the US) that have seriously been influenced by online media. Clinton and McCain both took second place to Obama in that respect. All future elections in internet-heavy countries will rely on- (if not be run on-) line, of course.
Follow the link to read more about what Chris and I talked about.
Could giving power to the people mean the downfall of democracy? by Chris Bond
