some notes; contributions to the discussion are welcome.
With the advent of the Internet, the political parties have seen gradually liquefying the intermediate structures that were justified by the friction determined by geographic constraints.
these intermediate structures were essential for organising consensus, obtaining feedback and to select managing members. they allowed the number of people involved in the complexity of political decisions to be extended
by skipping geography and communicating directly, these functions have disappeared, ways and times of building consensus and mediation have vaporised leading to fragmentation; the political message has become trivialized becoming even more polarized and appealing to emotions; the electorate has become more mobile and the parties more likely to be election cartels for a leader.
at least a couple of problems arise:
the first is that the internal governance of parties becomes more critical, internal conflicts increase, instability is exacerbated and the resilience of compromises is reduced
the second is that voting systems that reward the relative majority (first-past-the-post systems or systems with majority prizes) favour the election of people with extreme positions, with a (fragmented) majority opposing them. (Post-truth is a consequence)
If it’s true that the internet is the enzyme that has catalyzed these processes, exacerbating these trends, it is also true that time cannot be reveresed and a no solution can avoid using technology, even in internal governance of the parties, which is probably the first point on which to intervene.
I [gladly] welcome the opportunity of contributing to a discussion on this D&D [Digital and Democracy] topic. However, for this type of topic, I would recommend that all contributions are published in Italian as well.
Accolgo con piacere l’opportunità di contribuire a una discussione sull’argomento D&D [La Democrazia e Il Digitale]. Raccomanderei comunque, per l’argomento in questione, che tutti i contributi siano pubblicati anche in Italiano.
An italian version of these “D&D notes for discussion” is going to be made available shortly, as part of a prospective [G Drive] working document.
Una versione italiana di queste “Note per discutere l’argomento D&D” sarà disponibile a breve, inserita in una ipotesi di documento di lavoro [G Drive].
Working document editorial contributors whishing to volunteer please tell Luigi [prolocwt at casarayuela dot eu]
IF
[quote] no solution can avoid using technology, even in internal governance of the parties [unquote]
THEN
a general purpose technology should be adopted …. by WHOM? ….
in order to LEARN progressively HOW technical solutions …. best meeting the agreed upon [NOT JUST TECHNICAL] requirements of a territorialy distributed community ….. can be made available
THUS
suitable technology based solutions will be the outcome of evolutionary process work, driven by an operating dialogue involving heterogeneous cultures [analog – digital – scientific – political – …. Etc]
ELSE
Situation Normal All Fucked Up [SNAFU]