THE THIRD WAVE
This helps explain why single-issue political pressure groups become intransigent. Seeing limited opportunity for sophisticated trading or reconciliation through Congress or the legislatures, their demands on the system become non-negotiable. The theory of representative government as the ultimate broker collapses too.
The breakdown of bargaining, the decision crunch, the worsening paralysis of representative institutions mean, over the long term, that many of the decisions now made by small numbers of pseudo- representatives may have to be shifted back gradually to the electorate itself. If our elected brokers can’t make deals for us, we shall have to do it ourselves. If the laws they make are increasingly remote from or unresponsive to our needs, we shall have to make our own. For this, however, we shall need new institutions and new technologies as well.
The Second Wave revolutionaries who invented today’s basic represento-kit institutions were well aware of the possibilities of direct as against representative democracy. There were traces of direct, do- it-yourself democracy in the French revolutionary constitution of 1793. American revolutionists knew all about New England town halls and small-scale organic consensus formation. In Europe later on, Marx and his followers frequently invoked the Paris Commune as a model of citizen participation in the making and execution of the laws. But the short comings and limitations of direct democracy were also well-known—and, at that time, more persuasive.
“In The Federalist two objections to such an innovation were raised,” write McCauley, Rood, and Johnson, authors of a proposal for a National Plebiscite in the United States. “First, direct democracy allowed for no check or delay on temporary and emotional public reactions. And second, the communications of that day could not handle the mechanics.”
These are legitimate problems. How would a frustrated and inflamed American public in the mid-1960’s, for example, have voted on whether or not to drop a nuclear bomb on Hanoi? Or a West German public, furious at the Baader-Meinhof terrorists, on a proposal to set up camps for “sympathizers”? What if Canadians had held a plebiscite over
Quebec the week after Rene Levesque took power? Elected representatives are presumed to be less emotional and more deliberative than the public.
The problem of overemotional public response, however, can be overcome in various ways, such as requiring a cooling-off period or second vote before implementation of major decisions taken via referendum or other forms of direct democracy.
One imaginative approach is suggested by an actual program carried out by the Swedes in the mid-1970’s when the government called upon the public to participate in the formulation of a national energy policy. Recognizing that most citizens lacked adequate technical knowledge of the various energy options, from solar or nuclear or geothermal, the government created a ten-hour course on energy and invited any Swede who took it, or an equivalent course, to make formal recommendations to the government.
Simultaneously, trade unions, adult education centers, and parties from one end of the political spectrum to the other all created their own ten-hour courses. It was hoped that as many as 10,000 Swedes would participate. To everyone’s surprise, some 70,000 to 80,000 flocked to discussions in homes and community facilities—the equivalent (on the American scale) of some 2,000,000 citizens trying to think together about a national problem. Similar systems could easily be employed to cancel out the objections to “overemotionalism” in referenda or other forms of direct democracy.
The other objection can also be met. For the old communication limitations no longer stand in the way of expanded direct democracy. Spectacular advances in communications technology open, for the first time, a mind-boggling array of possibilities for direct citizen participation in political Decision-making.
Not long ago, I had the pleasure of keynoting an historic event—the world’s first “electronic town hall”—over the Qube cable TV system in Columbus, Ohio. Using this interactive communications system, residents of a small Columbus suburb actually took part via electronics in a political meeting of their local planning commission. By pushing a button in their living rooms they were able to vote instantly on proposals relating to such practical issues as local zoning, housing codes, and proposed highway construction. They were able not only to vote yes or no but to participate in the discussion and speak up on the air. They were even able, by push button, to tell the chairperson when to move on to the next point on the agenda.
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