Can The Internet Save Democracy?
By Jane Susskind on 02/04/2013 in Al Gore, citizens united, democracy with 4 CommentsRead Time: 2 - 2 minutes
In an interview with BBC News, former Vice President Al Gore spoke on the deteriorating nature of American democracy. Alluding to the 2010 Citizens United decision, he cited big money from anonymous donors as one of the key factors threatening representative democracy.
Arguing that the United States has lost sight of the democracy our founding fathers envisioned, he told BBC’s Jon Sopel ”our democracy has been hacked,” reminding us once more that we are living in an increasingly digital era.
In order to restore our democracy, he continues, “we have to restore the proper functioning of the conversation of democracy so that ideas and logic and reason once again have some significance and cannot be trumped by big money from anonymous donors.”
One way to improve the conversation of democracy is by using the Internet:
“We see individual bloggers having an impact on policy debates. We see fact-checking taking place on the internet that actually does change the way issues are dealt with. Television is still the dominant medium, but particularly with young people the internet is growing by leaps and bounds and I think soon will justify the optimism that individuals empowered by this new communications infrastructure will be able to reclaim their birthrights as free citizens and redeem the promise of representative democracy.”
Open access to information not only gives activists the opportunity to fact check, but it allows for the spread of information at a much higher rate than in the past. With the majority of our future generation logging on, the Internet holds the potential to mobilize young citizens to action. Through the use of social media, people can demand change through grassroots movements and online campaigns.
Do you believe that the Internet can restore democracy in America?
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4 Comments
Lucas Eaves
02.04.2013
@lucaseaves
I really do believe that internet can restaure democracy but it will require a lot of work because with its openness internet makes it also confusing to find good and reliable information. So we will need to structure the use of internet that creates a better democracy. I dont think it will happen by itself.
Xander Pakzad
02.04.2013
@xanderpakzad
I tend to disagree. Too much structure will put the power of communication in one centralized authority, whether that’s commercial or governmental, defeating the purpose of the internet. I think the growing online population will naturally funnel the good, reliable information to the masses in true grassroots form. Netizens already do that, and on the flipside, they’re quick to dismantle unreliable information. It might take some sort of direction, but I think most of the work will be done by users themselves. Getting more of them to care about politics in the first place, that’s another issue…
Alex Gauthier
02.05.2013
@alexg
one of the things that’s so awesome about the internet is the sheer volume of people it now reaches. Any massive overhaul of its structure will be met with widespread opposition. just look at the online SOPA and PIPA protests
Christian Matthews
02.12.2013
So how exactly has democracy been hijacked. How is democracy today different from what our founding fathers (the big money guys of their day) had in mind? How is big money bad for democracy? Is Al Gore bad for democracy because he has big money? Is Apple bad. Is a gold brick bad? Way too general. Just another sound bite. If you had big money would you be bad?