7.1. Do the Natural Forces and Organizing Principles Underlying Public Interest Nets Apply to Sectors of Society?

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7.1. Do the Natural Forces and Organizing Principles Underlying Public Interest Nets Apply to Sectors of Society? (Top)

In many important respects, workers and owners of small businesses have the same problems with their "governments" as do other citizens and experience the same problems of having their voices heard. Experiments with worker self-management have failed the same way that participatory democracy failed, citing scaling problems, apathy, and lack of skill and knowledge problems. Is it possible that the new Internet and bottom-up technologies appearing in the wider political system would apply to the work force and to small business? In other words, could they become small emergent democracies in which members could find expression in their governance through the Internet, facilitative leadership, and 5-minute activism? This could be a very exciting instance and application of emergent democracy.

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References

Case, John, "Worker Self-Management," with reply by Robert Dahl, New York Review of Books, Vol. 16, Num. 20, June 3, 1971.

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