Extreme Democracy

by Jon Lebkowsky, Mitch Ratcliffe

Are blogs and other emerging technologies changing the face of politics? Extreme Democracy is a collection of writings about the impact of technology on the political process. Authors include Steven Johnson, Joi Ito, David Weinberger, Jay Rosen, Mitch Ratcliffe, Jon Lebkowsky, danah boyd, and many others. Jon Lebkowsky discusses Extreme Democracy in an interview on the WELL, currently in progress.

372 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2005

Reviews

[Andreas · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting set of reflections on democracy in the digital age. The book is built on two central themes. One is the notion of "Emergent Democracy" - that is the combination of Emergence found in complex biological and social systems with Democracy: How can new social software enable us to make democracy emergent?

The other recurring theme is evaluation and learnings from Howard Dean's 2004 presidential campaign - the first campaign to build a bottom-up grassroots movement on the Internet. Seen in the light of Obama's recent election, these reflections seem somewhat dated, though they probably have proven to be of great value to his campaign.

The best parts of the book are Joi Ito's collaborative essay on Emergent Democracy, Clay Shirky's two essays, and danah boyd's reflections on sociable technology in relation to democracy.