competent citizens

Can there be such a thing as "too much democracy?" Is there a danger that the digital revolution will give too much power to citizens who aren't competent to use it?

There appears to be a wide range of thought on the topic of shifting political power due to the Internet, from utopian rhetoric to pessimism surrounding the existence of invisible controls and restraints on digital associations.

Within the editorial commentary of Henry Jenkins and David Thorburn found in Democracy and the New Media (Cambridge: MIT press, 2003) the idea is raised that “the pervasive talk about revolutionary change implies that here is some fundamental dissatisfaction with the established order.” Is this really the case?

The perceived danger that citizens who are politically incompetent will yield to much power may be much ado about nothing?

Jenkins and Thorburn are those who argue that the “digital revolution” is actually a “digital evolution” when they assess digital media’s effects upon democratic processes.
“The Web is a billion people on a billion soapboxes all speaking at once. But who is listening?” They discuss the effect that the Internet has upon democracy will be found to first cause changes in cultural forms before electoral politics. “It may take some time to discern the full influence of the Internet on American civic life.” However, the new sense of community and the expansion of “the range of voices that can be heard in a national debate, ensuring that no one voice can speak with unquestioned authority” promotes the creation of a “citizenry less dependent on official voices of expertise and authority.”

Within the same editorial commentary is found the thoughts of journalist Howard Rheingold, promoting the idea that the “virtual community” of online citizens will need to educate themselves in order to properly “leverage” the potential power brought to them by the new media. “The technology will not in itself fulfill that potential: this latent technical power must be used intelligently and deliberately by an informed population…” (The Virtual Community; Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier (Cambridge; MIT Press, 2000)

http://web.mit.edu/transition/subs/demointro.html

http://www.citizenrenaissance.com/the-book/part-one-three-seismic-shifts/chapter-three-the-digital-revolution-and-a-new-democracy/