Two More Interesting Political Proposals

Blog #12

10-5-14

Maria Kozdroy

Disclaimer: this is to be used as a response to a reading and class discussion.

Two More Interesting Political Proposals

            Democracy needs representation.  How can representation be fairly practiced in today’s society?  Woodhouse in chapter 10 proposes the idea of an internet-based democracy and groups of 10 people joining other groups and selecting individuals to represent at higher levels, to have a final representation of 500 individuals.  As he states these ideas are “impossible and perhaps even crazy,” and I believe the main reason for their infeasibility is due to the lack of participation and interest of citizens.  Even though someday Woodhouse’s ideas may become into effect, they will not last very long; however if tweaked upon to accommodate the disinterested and busy individuals, his ideas may prove successful. 

            Many people have jobs to fulfill daily, families to maintain, and many more duties, which I believe will make it difficult for individuals as such to get involved in voicing their opinions.  In fact in the 2012 Presidential Election, 53.6% of eligible voters filled out a ballot (GMU.edu).  This percentage seems quite low and can be for many reasons.  It directly correlates with why I think that Woodhouse’s ingenious ideas cannot be achieved in the late 21^st or early 22^nd century way because of the lack of concern.  However, there are many middle class activists willing to do anything to have a say in politics.  Those interested can get involved with the eight levels of arithmetic representation as Woodhouse has suggested.  There will not nearly be five billion participants worldwide in this project, yet if there is at least one billion participants would be quite the achievement.  This amount should prove adequate enough representation of individuals of different backgrounds, economic situations, and more.  Besides the physical coming together of people to have group discussion, Woodhouse believes an internet-based democracy can used, too, to help individuals have a say in government decisions. 

            In a recent infographic on Internet user data from Go-Gulf Web Technologies research, 30% of the world’s population is said to use the internet; however, how many people of that percentage will be willing to participate in listening to online based discussions and providing back responses.  According to the infographic, only 20% of people use the internet to read online articles (Go-Gulf.com).  If a half billion global users can participate in online representation would be great!  Yet the problem with this is what the demographics behind the people using the internet are.  Will individuals of the lower class of society be able to partake in this?  Or will only middle and upper class citizens be the only ones involved?

            Woodhouse’s suggestions of internet representation and system of five billion adults in eight levels are very clever, yet I do not think are possible to achieve to the level of extent of 100% participation.  The lack of representation of hard-working individuals of the lower economic class may still be unheard.  If Woodhouse’s ideas are implemented, high numbers of participants should not be highly expected, rather achieving more representation than what is apparent as of today in 2014 should be achieved. 

Sources:

Chapter 10 Woodhouse STS Text

United States Election Project <http://elections.gmu.edu/Turnout_2012G.html>

Infographic on Internet Users <http://www.go-gulf.com/blog/online-time/>