Gary Jones on extreme democracy

<a href="http://www.garyjones.org">Gary Jones</A> has a <a href="http://www.garyjones.org/mt/archives/000084.html">review</a> of the <a href="http://www.extremedemocracy.com/">Extreme Democracy</a> book/blog/wiki thing. The piece itself is a little densely-written, and spattered with invective against Joi Ito and Bruce Sterling, but it is worth persevering with.

Mr Jones makes an fair case against some of the claims made for emergent democracy. He is particularly strong on the need to avoid information cascades (which distort decision making), and the antidemocratic nature of simple majoritarianism. I myself think that he takes a good argument too far at time – I doubt, for example, that Joi Ito really wants to take over the world – but his piece is a useful reminder of the importance of variety, local independence and competition in democratic systems.

His arguments echo one of his earlier pieces, also worth reading, called <a href="http://www.garyjones.org/mt/archives/000075.html">Situation Normal</A>.