What is the Problem With Democracy?

This post closes my discussion on the democratic transformation in Iceland. I will now undertake the messed-up subject of foreign aid and international development.

The question ignites various answers, most of which relate to, and reflect, last century's split of democracy into participative and representative rule. This separation highlights a distinction between democracy as a social idea and political democracy as a form of government. The debate between John Dewey and Walter Lippmann in the 1920's explicates this democratic split. Whereas, Lippmann's books, Public Opinion (1922) and The Phantom Public (1925), raised doubts about the possibility of developing a true democracy in a modern, complex society. Dewey's work, The Public and Its Problems (1927), defended democracy and suggested that "when the machine age has thus perfected its machinery it will be a means of life and not its despotic master. Democracy will come into its own...(p184)" In its embedded ambiguity, 'democracy' encompasses a broad horizon of definitions. The various and ever-changing societies develop unique forms of 'democracy,' all forms depend on the conditions and ability of each particular society. Therefore, the result of the argument between participative and representative rule cannot be universally applied, but must be reasoned with the particular societal conditions and ability in mind. My personal endeavor is to bring awareness to Iceland's possibility to develop a form of deliberative participatory democracy unprecedented in history.
-- Read the posts on Tuesday, October 17, 2006 --


I come from Iceland. I want to support and argue for the implementation of information technology that will enable a democratic transformation as means to increase citizen decision-making power, make the government more transparent, and provide the individual with all her information needs. The development of this system clears the path for further innovation aimed to benefit the community at large and start a societal revolution. Here I will criticize our current ways and hope to help progress toward something better.