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Democratisation

Globally (dis)connected

tamaraplakalo's picture
Tue, 25/09/2007 - 01:21 — tamaraplakalo

 Digital divide is only one problem we're facing in realising the promises of a unified, Internet-enabled virtual future ...

SARAJEVO - I had an interesting conversation with my boss the other day. As I am currently stationed in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a place where democratisation and transition experiments are mixing with the post-war recovery, he wanted to know if there are any interesting Internet-related projects happening here. He assumed that here, like everywhere else on the planet, social and economic activities are gravitating towards the virtual space.

Digital divide notwithstanding, it was an interesting idea to assume that in a country struggling to rebuild basic infrastructure, where the 20 cent difference in the price of bread has serious social consequences requiring state intervention, and the population is begging the international community (this is their mess!) to remove its democratically elected politicians for their lack of sense and a refusal to agree on anything of consequence, one would expect a vibrant debate about a (more) virtual future.

Facilitating consultative democracy

tamaraplakalo's picture
Tue, 11/09/2007 - 12:14 — tamaraplakalo

 Political needs of a system (or a time), often determine what democratic political participation actually means.

Democratisation is a term that is most often used to describe the process of increased political participation. In the past, political participation was described as voting, joining a political party, or in the case of some experimental social engineering projects of the 20th century, such as Yugoslavia's socialist self-management, as creating consultative bodies at all levels of social, economic and political activity, regardless of their success. In its less democratic forms, political participation has historically been facilitiated through rallies, rioting, lobbying, formation of nationalist movements, paramilitary or other pressure groups, in other words, by any means serving the human need to exercise political will.