Government 2.0: The Next Generation of Democracy

For years, experts predicted e-government would be a driving force for broadband usage. The assumption was that many government services, from dog tags to taxes, could be done electronically over the Internet.  Despite modest success in this area, e-government hasn't pushed broadband usage. But now many pundits are starting to realize that the better value of e-government may be allowing the public to have greater input on government operations and processes.

One of the major problems with delivering e-government services is privacy and security.  Governments demand absolute security and privacy, which significantly drives up the delivery costs and/or makes it impractical to implement. On the other hand, e-commerce sites only need a modicum of security as business can budget for a limited of “shrinkage” due to electronic theft and misrepresentation, as in credit card payments, and so forth.  The loss of revenue from a single fraudulent transaction is nowhere as severe as the exposure of single tax-payer’s record.

Now, the goal is to use Web-based collaboration to "reinvent government." Well known author and futurist Don Tapscott advances this concept in his new research project called, Government 2.0: Wikinomics, Government & Democracy. A recent article in The Wall Street Journal reported, “Collaborative tools are changing governments. Technology makes it easy to publish information that used to be inaccessible. Chicagoans track crime by neighborhood, combining city crime statistics with Google's online maps. In Los Angeles, Neighborhood Knowledge California identifies communities at economic risk by tracking tax delinquency, fire violations and other signs of deterioration.”  And the list goes on.

Wikis and Web 2.0 technologies have the potential to fundamentally transform the way we are governed and radically reshape political philosophy. Not since the days of John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau have we had such opportunity and the tools to address many shortcomings of democratic society, especially the domination of special interests and lobbyists.

As Winston Churchill once commented, "Democracy is the worst form of government, but it is better than any other type of government we have ever tried." Government 2.0 represents an opportunity to redress the many shortcomings of the worst possible government we have -- democracy as we know it today.

So with next-generation government, using the new tools of Web 2.0 allows us to rethink some fundamental questions about governance and citizen engagement such as:

1. Why can't governments compete for my services? Is this fixed hierarchy of municipal, state, and federal governments necessary? Why not let governments of any strata issue vouchers for services and let me, the consumer, choose who is best at delivering those services. Perhaps federal governments would be better at processing drivers' licenses. Maybe municipal governments should look after healthcare, for example.

2. Governments always claim that taxes are "our" money, yet few of us feel any direct connection between our taxes and the services we receive. With today's computers and networks, citizens could be provided with individual accounts and track how their individual taxes are spent and disbursed. They may even be allowed to prioritize the areas of spending within their individual tax accounts. Ultimately, through their individual tax accounts, citizens can be allowed to vote with their wallets (which is generally more reliable than their brains) on the services that they deem most important to them.

3. Why not have neighborhood or personalized democracy? With these tools, maybe communities can elect to beautify neighborhoods using our tax dollars or accumulated value in our homes. We could elect to put flower boxes in front of every home, cobblestone the street, install fiber to each house, and so on. This would not only beautify the neighborhood but would significantly increase the value of our homes.

These are just some simple examples of the possibilities of applying Internet and Web 2.0 technologies to how we are governed.  We are only limited by our imagination, in optimizing the Internet as a new revolutionary tool to truly personalize democracy.  For more musings on this subject, please see my blog, Democracy 2.0 – Next Generation Democracy.

— Bill St. Arnaud, telecommunications analyst and frequent speaker on the future of the Internet and broadband