Re: [WDDM] Thoughts about our democracy (and a general ramble)

["M. Kolar" <wddm(at)mkolar.org>]

Pras Anand wrote:
> marketplace operations which are aimed at creating a DD. The industry
> buzzword is e-democracy and if (for example) you search google for
> e-government and european commission I'm sure you'd find many well
> placed ideas. These ideas have now flourished into examples all over the
       I am afraid that a very large majority of efforts (initiated by industry
and governments) that you will find on the internet under the keyword of
e-government (and even e-democracy) are actually top-down measures to make the
functioning of the current representative governments better, it's about how to
get the central decision made faster available to the citizens, and citizens
can comply with them online (various online filing systems).
        But I agree, you can find also find some truly DD efforts there, and many of
the technical solutions from the above top-down approach can pave way for true DD.


> In the sense that people don't even know what to think often and just
> say what they read, heard or saw on the television. Why would replacing
> existing governments with people from the general public actually be a
> good thing?
        Experience with Citizen Juries, Wisdom Councils, etc. shows that even even
such initially ignorant general public can make very good decisions if you
provide them with good information sources. They will educate themselves fast
if they know that they can change something, that their voice will be heard.

Mirek