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- Grassroots, Netroots, and the End and Beginning of Politics
Grassroots, Netroots, and the End and Beginning of Politics
Time:
Wednesday, 10:45
Room:
plenary
Speakers:
- Joan Blades
- Amy Goodman
- Micah Sifry (immoderator)
Session Highlights:
Description:
The American political process is changing. Although the end-goals may differ (win an election vs. solve a large, complex, often intractable social problem), political campaigns and other social change efforts share many characteristics, e.g., the needs to do fundraising, to influence public opinion, and to convince people to become actively involved.
The oft-cited example of the Howard Dean presidential campaign demonstrated how technology can amplify grassroots movements into national groundswells. Since that campaign, the communication technologies available have continued to evolve. Some of the most mobilization of huge numbers of demonstrators against congressional visited sites on the web are now political blogs, left and right. Myspace and cell phone text messages were instrumental in the organic action concerning immigration to the US. Politicians are podcasting, watchdogs have wikis and nonprofits concerned about political appointments are opening their own media channels. We can see how the sausage gets made like never before.
How are technology enabled campaigns and initiatives changing the political process? What are the key trends affecting this change? What lessons are applicable to social change efforts?
Comments
Micah's Question
The question Micah poses is an interesting one. In this era of the netroots, we tend to think if the rise of “people powered” politics in the context of our current two party system. In that context, I don't know that we will ever get to a system purely driven by people.
A system driven by people would, of necessity, evolve to a system based on individual positions, rather than party platforms. What the Internet provides, that I think is much more interesting and perhaps may alter the landscape significantly, is a move away from that two-party structure.
The two party structure is largely based on the net effects of redistricting. As parties try harder and harder to maintain power, they redistrict to protect their seats. Over the years, that has caused most races to be decided in the fringe of the two parties. The only real contests are in the wings with a small number of people (the primary voters) determining most of the members and a very small number of truly competitive "moderate" seats.
With the rise of the netroots, however, people are free to come together not on notions of "party" but on interests. We see that taking place in the net neutrality debate with the Gun Owners and MoveOn coming together under one umbrella. These two groups, under any other circumstance, would likely never interact. The immigration debate is likely to create similar unions. Should that continue, it means interesting things for political scientists.
Specifically, it would mean the eventual disintegration of "parties" and instead move the US toward a true coalition government. We talk about the two party "coalitions" now, but they are not true coalitions. A true coalition would allow those fighting for gay rights to side with candidates who actively fought for them - rather than Democrats who do not always toe the line. It would mean fiscal conservatives would support fiscally conservative candidates rather than Republicans who vote for big government.
Groups will coalesce around issues, rather than archaic political structures, and join with groups who may share their viewpoint on a particular issue to elect a candidate but oppose that group on another issue and join an third group to defeat a candidate.
The power of the netroots lies in its ability to envision, and enact a new political system.
To answer Micah’s question of whether something greater than the sum of its parts is emerging, I would answer “No.” This is not a question of something larger than the sum of its parts. This is a question of the parts, and how they are free to interconnect for short periods as they see fit to accomplish the goal of the people.