The document discusses democracy and the public sphere in the context of cyberpolitics. It defines democracy as rule by the people and outlines Robert Dahl's five principles of democracy. Three approaches to democracy are described: liberal individualism, communitarianism, and deliberative democracy. The internet is discussed as potentially enhancing each approach through information sharing, online communities, and as an electronic public sphere for deliberation. Habermas' concept of the public sphere and agora is also introduced. The document poses questions about whether the internet has transformed Habermas' idea of the public sphere and asks for examples of how this may contribute to the development of democracy.

1. Cyberpolitics Week 4: Democracy and public sphere

2. Democracy - of the people, by the people, for the people

3. Robert Dahl (1998) On democracy: 1. Effective participation and ability for citizens to make their views known; 2. Equal opportunities to participate in voting; 3. a reasonable amount of time to learn about alternative policies and their implications; 4. ability to control the agenda; 5. the inclusion of all adults.

4. Three approaches to democracy: Liberal individualism Communitarianism Deliberative democracy

5. Liberal individualism Internet as information pool and voting tool

6. Communitarianism Internet as a virtual community and networks

7. Deliberative democracy Internet as e-agora

8. Jugen Habermas

9. Public sphere and agora

10. Public sphere: e.g Cafe, early newspapers Private sphere State power

11. Mark Poster: Internet as public sphere? Class discussion: do you think the Internet can enhance deliberative democracy and Habermas’ idea of new public sphere? 2. And / or do you think that Habermas’ idea of public sphere has been transformed by the internet? If so how? 3. How do such changes contribute to the development of democracy? Can you give an example for elaborating your points?

12. Marker Stage 1 500-420 BCE Stage 2 1700-2000 CE Stage 3 2000 - ? CE Scale Economy Technical mediation Citizen consciousness Political form City-state (250,000) Nation-state (300M) Global Union (6B) Market Capitalism Global capitalism Face to face speech, Hand written Mass broadcast Digitalized and interactive Dialogic, rhetoric, External gods Rationality, Religion Postmodern ethics Direct Representative Modern, global direct democracy Evolutionary Clusters for Democracy Douglas C. Walton (2007) Is modern information technology enabling the evolution of a more direct democracy? in World Futures, 63: 365-385, 2007, Routledge, p.371.

13. Next Class: Quiz and class reading