Democracy In The 21st Century

Once upon a time in England, the fastest form of communication between different towns was to send a messenger. The king would dispatch a young lad on horseback with a sealed scroll to deliver his mandate to the regions. “Here ye, hear ye, the King demands this that and the rest of it..” In these ancient times bereft of technology, it made sense to have a ruler sitting in his castle in the south, controlling a central location for meetings, discussions and decision making for the country. 

Jumping forward in time to fifty sixty years ago, even when the greatest forms of communication had advanced to the telephone and the fax machine, one could still just about make a case for a system of centralised decision making by the institutions of our central government. After all, democracy can never be perfect; it would simply be unfeasible for everyone to have their say in politics by sending letters or making phone calls. It made sense for each region to send someone to London to speak on our behalf, and then all of the elected representatives of the country would make the laws together.

Well, we are now in the 21st century, where anyone with an interest in the goings-on around them and an internet connection can take part in a worldwide debate. Just as digital cameras and mobile phones give potentially anyone the ability to be a journalist, the blogging culture has turned anyone into a potential writer capable of publishing and distributing opinion throughout the country. Through the internet, people can easily find the website, chat room or online society that can connect them with the individuals or organisations in the country that think in the same way that they do and that share the same opinions. It is now practically possible for the public to have some form of direct input into politics. We can have online opinion polls and the public consensus can be easily determined. It is simply unacceptable in this day and age for there to be a separation between the opinion of the public and the way in which we are represented in parliament. It no longer makes sense to have a ruling establishment in Whitehall that do not listen to, discuss and execute the exact will of the people. The people are out there right now, on the internet, blogging, debating and congregating, trying to make themselves heard.

We need to open up democracy. We need to get it on the internet, in a controlled way so that everyone can have their say in the issues that matter to them.

Now by this I don’t mean getting rid of representation. We can’t give decision making totally to the people. Most of the population don’t have an interest in politics and are not bothered about voting for everything. We can at least, however, open up the system of representation. We need to put it online, on a public website where you can log on and see the representative for your constituency, see what his or her policies and priorities are, and open up wider debates about them. This way, the person that represents us will be exactly the person who shares the views of the people and vows to uphold them in parliament. If he or she did not prioritise our views, or if she voted against the views of the constituency, we would be able to discuss why in online forums and vote to depose her. We could even have online candidacy for MPs, so that anyone who better suits the role of representing the people in a given constituency can challenge the current incumbent for the job.

This may seem radical, and indeed it is relative to our archaic system of democracy that fails to deliver on so many of the current issues of today. But the sooner we start thinking in the 21st century and revolutionise our democracy, the better it will be for everyone.


Read On >>>>>> Democracy in the 21st century: Part 2