Chapter 6-Global Governance and Electronic Democracy by Oren Perez

Greetings, I have had the unfortunate incident of not saving my first draft which resulted in a power failure and I lost it. Saving does work, now I know. My disclaimer is that the opinions expressed are my own. I think for the sake of still being in shock over what happened this will be shorter. Also, forgive me if paragraphs run on because I am not able to start a new paragraph. I don't know if it's the effects of the outtage or what but here goes. The reading by Perez is loosely based on a conference " Prospects of Electronic Government" that was hosted in part by Carnegie Mellon University. At this conference there is a discussion of a group called the Internet Corporation for Assigning Names and Numbers(ICANN). This institution is apparantly highly influential in global citizenry. Perez is for the formation of a global democracy however, groups such as ICANN concern him primarily because their aims are not egalitarian in nature but are insensitive to social and humanitarian issues. Perez expresses his opinion of utilizing the internet in a way to herald true global democracy. Perez's main question is as followed: Can the Internet contribute to the development of a more inclusive decision making structure? In the reading he breaks down democracy down into two groups: The Unidimensional Structure of Democratic Institutions and the Internet as a Multidimensional Medium. The unidimensional way of doing things according to the author is based on two fundamental principles, autonomy of the citizen and the belief in equality. In theory Perez believes that to be autonomous one is devout of all influences, making decisions on their own but realistically we as a society are always being solicited to support a person, cause or organization. The idea of equality also is a pipe dream, just depends on who you ask. Perez delves further by catagorizing two kinds of what he calls social pluralism. The first kind is the diversity based on societal visions, an amalgam of multiple discourses. The second kinds is diversity based on the principle that people have distinct, innate structures. How does this all tie in you ask? Well if I'm following Perez and he does tie it in, is that these break downs in people and how they function directly effect their embracement of the Internet. Those inclined to react to structure constructs are more prone to be fearful of the 'net versus those who are less constricted. Perez discusses the Internet as a multidimensional medium three fold: As an efficient means of transparency, A means to elicit public comments or votes on its normative output, and to facilitate dialog between the institution and public. Perez's conclusions are that the Internet will help to easily herald the fundamental concepts of democracy which are dynamic rather than stationary in thinking. Perez feels the internet is the appropriate vessel to convey a social or global conscious with the government(s) acting on the group consensus via an internet public forum. Perez does realize that even that concept is a bit idealistic but more possible with the intenet. I will post a second blog with my further opinions but I am going to have to call it a day.