Democracy seems to need a shot in the arm.
Extensive research carried out by the BBC last year, published in Beyond the Soundbite: The BBC and the Democratic Challenge, reveals a widespread and deep disenchantment with politicians and a political process that fails to deliver evident and assessable outcomes.
This disaffection appears to stem from a fundamental shift from old tribal politics defined by party political allegiances, to a new consumer politics. People now play an active part in securing their rights in corporate life, but feel powerless to do this in civic life.
Our research suggests people are becoming more assertive about wanting more transparent political transaction rather than apathetic. They want information which is not defined by party politics but by the issues that interest them; they want to be able to judge what a politician promises; and if they disagree, they want to register this more than once in every five years.
What is surprising (though perhaps less so in this light) is a small but significant increase in engagement with public life for example letter writing, consumer boycotts and signing petitions although this is not always seen as politics.
All this suggests that the internet could be uniquely placed to reflect and drive new trends apparent in the way people engage with politics. With its potential to create a two-way street in communications, the web will undoubtedly contribute to these forces and help dismantle old, accepted hierarchies.
It has the potential to create a new dynamic between the powerful few and the powerless many. It allows people to come together to share knowledge and expertise and, through these new coalitions of interest, to exert their aggregated power faster than in previous eras.
When people spontaneously organised themselves online to protest against an extension of the British governments internet snooping legislation, the proposal was killed within 48 hours of it becoming public knowledge. It is a good example of how the web can act as a lightening rod for a new peoples power, exploding the opinions of the political establishment.
Internet-based political activism is happening. But so far, it is a world very much dominated by a small number of internet-smart activists; see, for example, www.stopesso.com.
The BBC wants to help a wider audience find their voice by tackling obstacles to greater participation. Research on internet-friendly groups showed two main reasons for passivity:
- I dont know where to start.
- I cant make a difference on my own.
The BBC project seeks to engage people in a unique interactive community through which they can make a difference in civic life. The initial aim is to foster communities connecting people interested in the same issues. They will be helped to attract and channel support for their issues, achieving very broadly-defined outcomes, ranging from contact with like people to coverage on BBC networks, with even the occasional possibility of influencing legislation.
To help it become easier to navigate civic life, we will provide a database of democracy which people can use to find out who they have to contact on any given issue. We want to provide people with the opportunity and means to participate in democracy at local and national levels, not simply to observe it. This will be a service designed for action, not talk or chat.
Rather than making people vote, the focus is on civic life between elections. We take the view that not voting is as legitimate a form of political protest as voting (although the BBC does rightly aspire to make that decision an informed one).
We believe the BBC is well placed to become a key facilitator in this emerging e-democracy world, using its strong trusted brand combined with its ability to attract audiences through both its online and broadcast output. However, there are many dangers for the BBC which will need to be solved, not least the absolute imperative of retaining our impartiality, and avoiding being perceived as part of any given campaign.
Also, for the BBC project to work, there need to be responding changes in other institutions. If larger numbers are enticed into the civic arena through the net, those on the receiving end need to be working not just on technical applications (possibly with the BBC) that will allow them to cope, but on a whole shift in culture a shift which begins to place the new consumer-citizen at the heart of the political process.
If this does not happen there is a danger that the internet will just add to the cynicism of a generation that already feels politics to be unaccountable and out of touch. This indeed would undermine the democratic potential of the internet before it is even realised.
The net is not a panacea for the ills of an ailing British democracy. Too few people have access to the net and, lets face it, reinvigorating our democracy requires change in many more important quarters the media, political institutions, government and not least politicians themselves.
But democracy is changing and the internet will be one catalyst in that change, although it is difficult to predict how. Two years ago, it was impossible to see where we are today, and today it is impossible to see where we will be two years hence.
However, there is enough evidence that institutions like the BBC should be taking the interactive plunge. And when, as we hope, this BBC project strikes out into this new world, it must open itself up to being carried in very different and unexpected directions.
