Representative democracy seems troubled. People are ignoring it. It is not exactly hip with the kids. A little like the unfortunate uncle who gate crashed the party, it hangs around trying to convince people that its magic tricks are interesting.
For a brief period last week, the Chinese government hijacked foreign search engines. Chinese Internet users trying to search on Google, Yahoo and Microsoft were redirected, first to a Chinese government anti-pornography Web site and then to the Chinese search engine Baidu.
The number of Americans using the internet as their main source of political news doubled since the last mid-term election.The number of Americans who got most of their information about the 2006 campaign on the internet doubled from the most recent mid-term election in 2002 and rivaled the number from the 2004 presidential election year.
The internet is where good political intentions clash with harsh realities. Sally Young and Peter Chen reflect on the gap between democracy and the double-click. Dick Morris, the famous political strategist and former adviser to Bill Clinton, calls the internet "the fifth estate". He believes the net will shape politics in the 21st century, end representative government and bring a return to "direct democracy".
