Dublin launches virtual Athenian forum

dahamsta

An interesting concept. It sounds great, but you have to wonder how it'll go in the coming days, weeks and months. Informed debate or all-inclusive flame war hell? Still though, no harm to introduce pols to the wonderful world of flaming and trolling...

adam

Dublin launches virtual Athenian forum
Wednesday, November 19 2003
by Matthew Clark

A new section of the Dublin.ie Web site has been launched, with the aim of bringing democracy back to its Athenian roots.

Called "Democracy in the City" and launched on Wednesday, the project has been described by its creators as a "democracy marketplace," where opinions, proposals and ideas can be expressed in full view of the public and politicians. The new e-government project was equated with ancient Athens, where citizens and leaders gathered together to discuss political issues in a forum open to all voters.

Ryan Meade, project consultant with the Dublin City Development Board, told ElectricNews.Net that Democracy in the City, at its core, was designed to serve as a focal point where issues that relate to the capital and the nation could be considered by voters and leaders.

Apart from discussion forums, the site will allow users to contact local, national and EU politicians, who in turn can lead on-line dialogue with the electorate. The project's creators -- the Department of the Environment and Local Government and Dublin City Council -- also said that users can become virtual members of the Dublin Civic Forum, allowing them to organise virtual petitions and making judgments on political issues through a so-called "citizens jury."

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vinnyfitz

Here is the site.

You have to register with Dublin.ie to use it.

It will be interesting to see what people think of it.

Éomer of Rohan

Quoted from article
Called "Democracy in the City" and launched on Wednesday, the project has been described by its creators as a "democracy marketplace," where opinions, proposals and ideas can be expressed in full view of the public and politicians. The new e-government project was equated with ancient Athens, where citizens and leaders gathered together to discuss political issues in a forum open to all voters.

I think this is incredibly arrogant and misleading; the Athenian Ekklesia was not bloody well dependent on people having access to the internet.

This new site is going to have absolutely zero effect on our political affairs - now, if the government wanted to set up a proper talking shop for the people to discuss their own views, I think that is an excellent idea - and that politicians might attend might bring some of them back to contact with their grass roots constituents. Not that I have any faith in the electoral process anyway.

joemomma

the Athenian Ekklesia was not bloody well dependent on people having access to the internet.

Yes, but it was dependent on them being male property owners, if I'm not mistaken. If internet access was a prerequisite for citizenship today, this would probably be a less restrictive criterion!

In reality though I don't think anything like this could or would claim to be all-inclusive, it's just another method of communication. The people using it will certainly not be fully representative of the broader public, but you could argue that people will use it who do not otherwise get involved with politics and democracy, e.g. younger people.

Éomer of Rohan

You are mistaken; the Ekklesia was open to all males over the age of 16 - see Plutarch's Life of Alcibiades for references. There was no property qualification.

Young people would be better served by being taught about the political system and it's alternatives by those who passionately believe in them; ie having a member of each political party amongst the teaching staff in any given secondary school give a class (the new Citizenship Class that the British government are bringing in, while at the moment biased, would be ideal for this sort of thing) - and if one cannot be found, send out for one but have standardised handout sheets prepared; I know that most of the smaller political parties would leap at a chance like this.

The education in exactly what arms of the state can be accessed by the public and for what purposes - in other words how to navigate the government bureaucracy would also be of use.

Basic education in the local politics of the Town or Borough Council's would be useful. That sort of forum is an invitation for ill-informed debate depending on who gets involved.