'new Media and the Revitalisation of Politics'

The problem: In this short response to the Hay, Stoker and Williamson paper I take up the question of how far the new media can offer a solution to the 'anti-politics' culture they see as emerging in Britain in recent years. While I do not share the conviction that something is quite so rotten in the British state, and take issue with some of the causes they identify for its atrophying condition, I do accept the basic premise that there has been a decline in the levels of support and popular trust in our representative institutions and elected officials in recent decades. In the main, therefore, my response speaks to a more generic issue of whether new ICTs can address some of the current democratic deficits of representative government and help to engage and/or re-engage citizens in contemporary politics. In the course of doing so I pick up on some of the particular problems of the anti-politics trend they identify in regard to parties, pressure groups and the channels of communication between citizen and MP. Can the use of digital media work to offset or even counteract the declines in performance and public trust that our key democratic bodies are encountering? Before turning to the question of how e-democracy might provide something of a 'rescue remedy' for the British polity, let me first summarise the key points of the authors critique, particularly as it pertains to the old and new media. Essentially they make a series of bold claims regarding what they see as a basic problem of a growing anti-politics culture in the UK. One that is expressed not via citizen apathy or withdrawal, but active disenchantment and even hatred of politics and politicians. The most proximate cause of this dislike they argue is rooted within the political class itself and the crusade of de-politicisation that has gained ground in recent years, whereby decision-making has been subcontracted to unelected appointees. Such moves in effect send a message to voters that 'you can't trust us', fuelling fears and cynicism that our elected politicians are incompetent and even worse corrupt. The more deep-rooted causes are seen as less directly observable, stemming from acceptance of the rational choice paradigm within government circles, which has preached a message of the minimal state and optimality of the private sector. The result is a form of 'arms length governance without government' – 'a form of …