Technology can do so much - it’s connected people everywhere in a common language, given people increasing amounts of knowledge and information, created an increasingly globalized world, and now — it’s revolutionizing even democratization.
Technology, itself, is democratic. It allows anyone to post content on the ever-growing web and gives people immediate access to huge amounts of information that previously would have been obscurely stored in books. You no longer have to pay $20 to read a book - you can often easily glean the same information from the web. This ‘democratization of information’ is like the 2nd printing press, and it’s changing the shape of political systems around the world. No longer do dictatorships and governments have a monopoly on information — ordinary citizens can find out if their leaders are corrupt, if their governments are living up to their promises, if they are being subjected to unfair policies. Technology also helps people organize, and empowers civil society. Knowledge is power, and technology is putting more power in the people - a countervailing force to the state.
But technology is doing more than just providing knowledge to people and breaking boundaries. It’s being concretely used to promote democratization and to improve elections around the world. The new ways technology is being leveraged are incredibly exciting and innovative - and provide hope for future democracies.
Ghana election campaigns; source, BBC
In Ghana, elections in December 2008 went off quite successfully, and were “praised as transparent and well-run.” One factor contributing to the success was that civil society groups had been using cell phones and texting to monitor and observe the ongoing elections. The Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) in Ghana apparently used cell phones to report back on the conduct of voting at polling centers around the country. Volunteers with mobile phones monitored a representative sample of 1,000 out of some 21,000 polling stations. While voting went on, they sent text messages containing data on the conduct in their polling station to a toll-free number. They used special codes for various types of misconduct; for instance, a text containing “D1″ meant “ballot box missing”. Volunteers also texted the ballot count for a specific polling station in order to prevent any political party from falsely claiming victory before official results were announced. Similar systems had been used during elections in Indonesia, Montenegro, Egypt, and Sierra Leone - but not as effectively.
In Angola, the first elections in 16 years were held in September 2008 - and to prepare for the momentous occassion, the government spent a lot of time, a lot of money, and a lot of technology to lay the groundwork for a successful election. Since Angola hadn’t had elections in so long, the government identified participation and voter turnout as the main problem to target. More than 8 million people were registered using a technologically advanced anti-fraud system of cards with holograms, pictures and fingerprints. Government officials basically went to remote areas of Angola in order to register as many people to vote; they registered each person by snapping a photo and taking their fingerprint, and then gave each person a voting card. They didn’t even need to know how to sign their names. There was also a lot of publicity encouraging people to vote - some was even sent out through phone text messages. They set up polling stations on oil rigs, and officials used helicopters to go to remote villages and voting stations in order to personally collect ballot papers. Satellite and solar-powered fax machines sent lists from other polling centers. For those who lost their voting cards, more than 6,000 hand-held computers were used at polling stations to help people access their details and registration number. Of course there were logistical issues, and it took 3 years to plan and a whole lot of money.
But at the same time, this sort of intensive effort amazes me and I see such immense future potential to get people engaged in democracy - even in rural villages - through innovation and technology. The potential is literally endless.
