Theoretical Analysis Of Practical Effect And Core Elements Of Cyber Democracy

The world today is in the information age, the internet as a technologytools play a role in social life has become increasingly beyond thetechnology itself. Cyber society to a large extent on the social and politicallevel, as the complement of the social reality, sometimes even beyond thereality of social and political life of the people had a major impact. Manyscholars regarded the internet as the only way for the further developmentof democracy. Due to the extremely feature of democratic qualities such asliberty, equality, open, people show more interest of political topics in theinternet than they do in real life. To express views, exchange ideas, make comment on the internet have been a convenient way for people toparticipate in political life. E-democracy has become reality in Europe andUSA, where the internet is particularly developed. Government shallcollect public opinion through the internet before new policies would beformulated. There are indications that internet served as a catalyst in thedevelopment of democratic politics. However, internet brings not only allpositive news, many scholars have also pointed out that the destructivepower of the internet for the traditional democratic society. Openness ofinternet seems to have been beyond the boundaries of freedom, verbalviolence, group polarization, collaborative filtering are more serious than inreality. Non-centralized structure of internet has been considered as a toolfor decentralization, but relatively, the proliferation of power may not onlylead to more serious anarchist and social antagonism, it may also lead tothe opposite case, spawned a technical power autocratic. However,regardless of the academic point of view, we must face up the fact thatinternet is changing the world. Cyber democracy, after all, is just a new form of democracy rather than democracy itself. Although we can not saycyber democracy can lead us the world into the truly self-governance era ofdirect democracy, but as a complement of democratic politics in reality,cyber democracy does play a huge role. Based on this, combined traditionaldemocratic theory point of view, to sort out and analyze the concept andcore mechanism of cyber democracy. This paper focuses on the core themeof cyber democracy, combing the concept, basic elements, realization wayand defects of cyber democracy. Combined with the democratic theory ofthe concept and reality of social and psychological factors, analyze theinternal mechanism of the impact that internet take on the allocation ofpower, civil rights and political psychology, approach and results of cyberdemocracy impact on practical political, and the potential risks to reality ofpolitical and social development of cyber democracy.The first chapter illustrates the concept and connotation of cyberdemocracy. Internet is essentially a new kind of media technology.Traditional mass media is easy to control by authority. The appearance of internet broke down this information monopoly. The technicalcharacteristics of internet determine its organizational structure isdistributed, decentralized form of organization. This makes the publicationand dissemination of information to get rid of control from authority,achieved free flow of information, changed human social interaction. Itprovides the information and platform of fully discussed participate whichdemocracy demands, and new space for democratic political participationof citizens.The second chapter analyzes the two basic elements of cyberdemocracy--freedom of information and expression. Freedom ofinformation and expression are two basic premise of democracy. Fullyunderstand the information in order to make a rational judgment,understand the views of others, and discuss in order to form a consensus, tofind out the best path. In the absence of these two prerequisites, thendemocracy will be out of the question. Internet brought about informationresources freely shared, citizens access to and dissemination of information channel diversification. internet gives citizens more right to speak, peoplecan public opinions freely,or participate in the discussion. Further more,information is an allocated resource, in the information age, anyone whohas the information, shall hold the power as well. Internet brought aboutpower decentralization and restructuring, established a new type of poweroperating mechanism.The third chapter analyzed the influence to citizens’ identityconfirmation of cyber democracy. As the identities of the social attributesdetermine its position in society and behavior logic, the individual identityto collective is the basis of the social system. Identification in traditionalsociety is a process of the accumulation of habit and experience, peopleestablish a community identity in the external specification. Virtual ofcyberspace allowed individuals break through the constraints of realitysocial identity, allows individuals to create personalized in full accordancewith the wishes of self identity. Departing from the shackles of socialreality, individual identity impaired the influence and control of existing social rules and social authority of individuals. People no longer satisfiedwith life in accordance with the established identity trajectory, but realizedtheir powers and abilities of influence on society as actors.The fourth chapter analyzes the effect on reality of cyber democracy.In the current technical and social conditions, influence on democraticpolitics of mainly reflected in an open space for discussion andmanufacture of public opinion cyber democracy. These two aspects wereachieved through virtual community. Internet using its own technicalcharacteristics provides the public with an open, free and convenientcommunication space; people can discuss topics of their own interest indifferent groups. Discussions in virtual community avoided the practicalfactors affect the expression of individual opinions. Achieved functions ofpublic sphere to some extent. Views of people can ultimately summarizedinto public opinion throughout discussion in virtual community, so that thevoice of people can be heard by the public, and affect the policyformulation. In this way, brought about the deepening and expansion of citizens’ political participation, as well as the initial formation of the civilsociety.The fifth chapter analyzes the damage to reality of social and politicalcaused by cyber democracy. The appearance of the Internet fundamentallychanges the situation of freedom of expression in contemporary society.But such high degree of freedom brings not only the rise of directdemocracy or deliberative democracy, but also cause a huge impact onsocial order and political system. Digital divide may cause a new round ofpolarization, group polarization and collaborative filtering may lead tosocial division and spread of extremist, IT refactoring social life may leadto two contrary reorganization of authority--anarchism or a new type ofauthoritarian rule. These should be the problem we must pay attention towhile expecting that internet could achieve a new round of development ofdemocracy.