Tunisia. Iran. There's a big debate on whether or not the Internet and technologies like Facebook and Twitter are having any measurable impact on the level of democracy in the world (or lack there-of). There's been some good argument lately that maybe the Internet isn't really anything special and that, if anything, it's the crack of the masses (TV being the opiate).
I think, however, if you step back and look not at twitter or facebook by themselves but at the Internet as just one more example of the collapsing cost of communication a different picture could emerge. Every technology revolution has reduced the cost of communications. First the printing press, then radio, then TV, then cable TV and digital video recording, and now the Internet.
And in each case, it's become possible for more and more information to circulate the globe. Most of it is crap. Any by crap I mean reality TV. But even the worst reality TV and most banal twitter message contains lots of clues and context about the lives that people are leading around the world.
And there's been a very big increase in the level of democracy in this world at the same time as the cost of communications has come down. Correlation - yes. Causation? Harder to tell. Certainly, non-democratic governments today seem to be focused on making their case - that they can deliver faster economic growth and better living standards through quick decision-making. I can't imagine the King of France, 500 years ago, bothering to even explain why he was a better alternative to democracy.
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