Grassroots and Digital Branches

The politics of the Internet is a common theme in cybertheory, though commentators work with a variety of different notions of the political. Among the main issues are the question of whether the Internet may enhance or detract from the processes of deliberation traditionally seen as crucial to a strong civil society, along with that of whether online voting could usher in an era direct democracy where citizens vote regularly in referenda and ostensibly become the arbiters of their own collective destinies. Others are more interested in identity politics than the formal political system. Many have argued that the Net empowers individuals to present themselves to others in ways that transcend the restrictions of socially ascribed or embodied identities, thus enhancing personal freedom by opening up possible ways of being. There are issues of privacy and civil liberty—questions of who has rights of access to messages and the right to compile information about Internet users, and questions of unequal access, especially that of the uneven social distribution of the benefits of the Internet. Just a step away is the broader political economy of the Net. Is it above all the motor of capitalist expansion and even perhaps neo-colonialism? Or is it better characterised as an unprecedented gift economy of information exchange?