IP and democracy don't always go together
Dan Farber points me to an upcoming discussion of the myth of democracy spreading across open networks by authors Shanthi Kalathil and Taylor Boas:
Looking at China, Cuba, Singapore, Vietnam, Burma, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates, they analyze Internet use by a range of political, economic, and social actors and examine its political impact. Their finding: the Internet is not necessarily a threat to authoritarian rule, especially in those countries where governments have been in charge of its development since the beginning.
Kalathil and Boas find that certain types of use do pose political challenges to authoritarian governments, which may contribute to future political change. Yet other uses actually reinforce authoritarian rule, and the leaders in some countries actively promote development of an Internet that serves state-defined interests rather than challenges them.
The authors will discuss their findings at an event aired LIVE on the web. Tune into www.ceip.org/live on Friday, January 31, 2003 at approximately 12:45 to listen. Audio also will be available on the web site after the event, along with excerpts and table of contents.
This is a really important point to keep in mind. As I've been ranting about the need for Americans to take up their voices, it might have been easy to mistake that as an endorsement of the idea that IP networks by their very nature are more democratic than broadcast media. They are not, unless the people using them are intent on increasing the range of discussion, including as many people and views as possible. People make democracies, not technology. The voting booth is not the reason we live in a free (albeit, less so all the time) country. The people who walk in and pull the lever are the lever of democracy.
Posted by Mitch Ratcliffe at January 30, 2003 10:06 AM | TrackBack