The future of democracy?

Another aspect that is becoming clearer as the days go on is the use of networking sites as a quick and to the point method of registering your opinion on a wide range of social, economic and political issues that can arise from obscurity to a big deal with a number of hours. I mentioned the Canadian government backing down against introducing stronger copyright laws yesterday. I've also found a group on Facebook that is protesting the lack of rental controls for the province of Alberta (Alberta now has some of the highest rental rates in Canada).

Will this protest group be noticed by the Alberta government and will it be enough to influence policy? Maybe. But it may be that the federal government's backing down of the copyright laws were coincidental with the creation of the Facebook group - it was after all at the end of the fall sitting for parliament.

Democracy as it is known today is generally through a representative of some type. Direct democracy, although the most pure form is considered impossible and ill-advised. Ill advised because of "tyranny of the majority", but also because of the number of issues which are of low importance to an average citizen and often require the knowledge or experience of a dedicated professional to make an informed choice. And until recently, simultaneous or near simultaneous voting for anything larger than a village or small town was not technically possible.

However, with the modern telecommunications and virtual places that a person can casually drop in on, we have shifted substantially closer to a more pure form of democracy - but only if the politicians are listening...