Representative Government in the Era of Improved Communication

Abstract

Technology is allowing communication to become inexpensive, ubiquitous, secure, and instantaneous, in the process transforming individual lives and societies. Representative government was conceived in an era of laborious, slow, insecure, local, and high-cost communication modalities. These modalities imposed burdensome but inescapable limitations on both the representatives who were entrusted to aggregate and adjudicate public sentiment while making decisions on the behalf of others, as well as the public who faced trust crises, participation barriers, and ignorance of facts and issues. This paper explores positive and negative consequences that improved communication has for representatives. Consequences for a better educated and informed citizenry often with unprecedented discretionary time are also examined. Conclusions include deliberate power divestment on the part of representatives and an open source government model for citizens.