Democracy 2.0: Apathetic or Just Differently Engaged?

par Apathy is Boring Volunteer Melissa — 22 avril 2008

We’ve all heard of Web 2.0, the trend in online activity that’s shifted the focus from one-way dissemination of information to user participation, sharing, and collaboration. This trend has been largely driven by youth aged 18-35 using technologies such as wikis, blogs, and podcasts.

Democracy is also changing. Although you will see polls and statistics lamenting youth apathy and disengagement from the political process, the truth is that young people are just contributing to democracy in decentred, non-traditional ways—what we might call Democracy 2.0.

These numbers can only measure youth participation in the traditional methods of civic and political engagement, such as voting in elections or joining political parties. But if you stepped back and looked at the bigger picture, you would see that young people are more passionate than ever about creating social change. And in fact, their patterns of involvement are even more hands-on than these traditional methods.

Over the past few years, young people have been increasingly involved in creating, organizing, and collaborating on fresh ways of making democracy exciting again—such as signing petitions, attending social issues conferences, and participating in political demonstrations. Rather than taking place through the government or its political parties, these activities tend to be organized by independent organizations or private individuals.

What this means is that Canadian youth are moving away from a “one size fits all” approach and towards organizations that speak more directly to their own needs and concerns. Instead of working through political parties, which are accountable to a diverse set of people with different issues at stake, they are working with organizations that are specifically focused on their own interests in environmentalism or immigration or health care.

In general, young people are also more interested in working with non-governmental organizations because these groups tend to be less hierarchical and give them the opportunity to make a more immediate contribution. Activities such as boycotting companies with questionable connections or volunteering at youth vote concerts allow young people to make a more flexible commitment and see the immediate results of their actions. This poses a sharp contrast to traditional forms of political engagement, which many youth find unsatisfying, as it tends to move at a slower pace.

With all these new ways of getting involved in politics and civics, Democracy 2.0 has decentred political engagement from traditional hierarchical structures and put it into the hands of each individual. But there’s still a lot of work to be done. Those people engaged in Democracy 2.0 represent only a small portion of Canadian youth, and in fact, many young people are still disconnected from the democratic process. However, the strength of Democracy 2.0 is that it allows people to get involved in their own ways and in their own time. With so many new entry points into Canadian politics, they just have the find the one that works for them.

Sources:   
Canadian Policy Research Networks
TakingITGlobal Research