Tuesday 29 January 2013

Democracy Today

This week we discussed democracy, and how it has changed in the 21st century. How do you participate in democracy? Is democracy dead?
The main question at hand is whether our digital era has played a part in the way we participate in democracy. Personally, I feel that our democratic system does not allow for a personal voice. I do not see how voting for a representative to relay information is being democratic...how many times does one vote for a representative because of what they "stand for", and yet most of the time those "promises" usually do not follow through. I feel like voting does not really matter because at the end of the day politicians will do whatever they want. This is where the internet can come in handy. The public is finding new, interactive ways to express their voice. Social media platforms like YouTube, Facebook etc are being used as forms of citizen expression. People want their voices to be heard and quickly, and like we have seen previously, these platforms can spread messages like wildfire.
I definitely think that people are participating in democracy differently these days and we will see a big change in the near future.

What do you guys think?


1 comment:

  1. I definitely agree that the internet is allowing for citizen expression. I believe it is and will continue to assist in getting people's voices heard and hopefully will lead to a more democratic society. Representative government has its pros and cons, of course, but if there was a better way to get the attention of our representatives in government about what issues most concern us as citizens, I think that would be a great way to push for change. The internet is definitely able to make this possible, however, there just has to be some sort of systematic approach to enforcing something that will be productive for both the government and us citizens in this regard.

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