Discourse Hegemony And Electronic Democracy At The Information Age

The modern information technology, especially the network technology,is regarded as a means for realizing a high-level political participation andan informationalized political domocracy. While as a most important meansfor political participation in the 21st century it brings mankind into a new ageof "electronic democracy"and accelerates mankind's democratization, it isused as a tool for exporting discourse hegemony. How to dialectically dealwith this historical phenomenon becomes one of the practical problemsoccurring in course of social democratization. Taking a philosophical angle of view, this thesis has analyzed the unityof opposites between the discourse hegemony and the electronic democracyat the information age, prompted the "dilemma"of the information age, i.e.the discourse hegemony and the electronic democracy at the information ageare opposite and coexistent, and therefore led to a reflection on the two partsso that it may have some practicability and realistic significance. The Internet is changing people's manner of participating in publicaffairs, but it will not fundamentally change the social information-powerstructure. In my point of view, since the network technology is the output ofthe existent information-power structure, with only network technology, wecan not deduce a sure conclusion of electronic democratic society. In thepublic action of public participation, the information and ability forparticipation is more important than the "democratic"network and thewillingness for democracy. Electronic democracy only improves theprocedure of democracy, and is far away from the destination of democracy.In my opinion, democracy means not only the democratization of electionpolitics but also the everlasting revolution and transformation. While fighting against discourse hegemony, people attach importanceto the guarantee of discourse right, losing sight of the effect of discoursepower. In fact, without the latter, the guarantee of the former is out of thequestion. The guarantee of discourse right relies on discourse powerfunctioning. Therefore, at the information age, the discourse power needs IIfurther expounding and defining. It not only means the discourse right, butalso guarantee the condition and mechanism for the effectiveness ofdiscourse, which will ensure that every individual can be really equal inreceiving and transmitting information. In other words, as the actualdiscourse power, it must include the following two aspects: one is thatpeople have the right for discourse; the other is that certain discoursemechanism and condition ensure the effectiveness and strength of discourse. To obtain discourse power or to reach the destination of democracy andfreedom, at no time, the public could just rely on the invented world ofnetwork－or on the hope that "all computers in the world, join up". Theyshould start with the actual society after all. They should, in MichelFoucault's word, proceed from changing the power mechanism of the actualsociety.