In the last couple of decades internet technologies have become the indispensable part of our lives. We're now living in an era which is called "internet age", where almost everything takes place in the internet. Take friendship as an example: previously physical world is the only place where you can meet with others, but now we have friends in social networks. It is just an example of how concepts have evolved over the years. More recently, mobile technology, especially smartphones, are getting more prevalent in our lives. Almost everyone now has either iPhone or Android in their pockets regardless of the age of that person. Thanks to the ubiquitous wireless and 3G/4G connections, these devices have immediate connection to the internet and open the doors for various novel collaborative systems and applications.
It is so obvious that world has never been connected in this way before. It's just a few taps that separate us from others. However, we're still governed/managed the 100 years-back technology called ''representative democracy". Parliaments are still the mainstream of the system and members of parliaments are still elected in an old similar fashion for the last 100 years. And the member of parliaments cannot even agree on simple concepts such as the recent "gun law" in the US. Below is another example: a video of how members of parliament in various countries spend their time. I happen to see similar behaviors in my own country too.
Rethink is needed! We all know that the best democracy is the one where people can participate directly not indirectly through the members of parliaments. It is more than clear that "Representative democracy" is an old concept and there is no meaning of pursuing it in this age of technology. Therefore, we need set up a new system in which people can participate easily and directly.
In such a system voting can take place using smartphones. Every problem and concept can directly be asked to voters. From local government issues to central government issues such as the gun law, can be directly discussed/voted with the real representatives. I believe this is the true democracy not the one we currently have.
Of course there are various challenges to address in the technological side such as privacy, scalability and security. Moreover there are organizational changes that need to be considered too such as how the government will be inspected/checked. However, none of these is unsolvable given the experience we have in these areas for the last couple of decades. Although, it might be perceived as early at first, I believe our world will be operated like this within the couple of decades.
