We’ve typed on here about deliberative democracy, DD being the sort-of shared objective of our contributors. As such, Farhad Manjoo’s column in today’s Slate, loking into the potential of an Obama administration web presence, comes to interested eyes.
Manjoo’s initial thrust is to wonder aloud how the “most technologically sophisticated presidential campaign in history” might morph into a working, administrative presence. It is one thing to use technology to drive a singular goal, and quite another to use it to further the various and sundry (thus, not alotogether unifying) policy initiatives stemming from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, NW. Manjoo wonders whether a White House Web could solicit meaningful citizen input.
The sort of Web site the Obama team seems to be envisioning—one in which the president and his citizens hold deep discussions about the controversial issues of the day—will surely be much less focused than My.BarackObama.com, which had a singular goal: to get Barack Obama elected. Obama’s campaign Web site connected disparate people who shared a common passion; the White House social network will connect people who disagree with each other and with the president—and whose goals might be in conflict. So far, the Web hasn’t had a great record of bridging social divisions. If Obama can change that, maybe he really is a different kind of politician.
That last line reminds me of Cass Sunstein’s Republic.com, which argues that the internet, rather than providing people with new or challenging ideas, can lead to intellectual balkanization because of our ability to filter our online inputs.
Manjoo’s column might be summarized with this question: can Obama create an online forum that allows deliberative democracy?
