The citizen lobby : : from capacity to influence / / Leif Thomas Olsen.

• VerfasserIn: Olsen, Leif Thomas,
• Place / Publishing House: Lüneburg : : meson press,, [2015]; ©2015
• Year of Publication: 2015
• Language: English
• Series: Media, democracy & political process series
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (169 pages).

The Internet holds endless opportunities for exchange and dialogue and the promise of developing a better democratic model. Day-to-day politics are largely driven by economic lobbies in the interest of what Habermas calls their "generalised particularism," the threat to take jobs and tax revenues elsewhere. Citizens' influence over politicians is twofold: they are asked for their input in elections, referenda, online consultations and surveys, and citizens can initiate issues where they see political action needed. Yet these "participative forces," including NGOs, street rallies and charities, regularly fail to reach the ears of elected politicians as effectively as those of well-funded corporate lobbies. Also, this type of voluntary engagement often falls short of presenting the kind of reasoned challenges to the incumbents-by the electorate-that Habermas' communicative action aimed at. A more powerful model would therefore organise the efforts of the electorate in a way that both generates those reasoned arguments, which, as Habermas quite correctly pointed out differ from mere opinions, and delivers them to the elected politicians in a manner they can neither refuse nor ignore. This is what the Citizen Lobby intends to do. This work was published by Saint Philip Street Press pursuant to a Creative Commons license permitting commercial use. All rights not granted by the work's license are retained by the author or authors.

Table of Contents

Foreword 9 -- Executive summary 11 -- [1] The framework: From parliamentary democracy to the Citizen Lobby 15 -- [2] Jürgen Habermas: The public sphere and its communicative action 37 -- [3] Information and computer technology: How is ICT changing the political playing field? 59 -- [4] Peer-to-peer: Is P2P the future mode of democratic action? 83 -- [5] Liquid Democracy: The term, the systems, supporters and critics 107 -- [6] Evolving relationships: The model leading to the model 119 -- [7] The Citizen Lobby: The model, the process and the costs 135 -- Appendices 151 -- Literature Reference List 163.