In the months before the 2002 congressional elections, just as Congress abdicated its constitutional responsibility to declare war to the president, mainstream media frequently employed the trope of "debate:' Democratic leaders, with an eye to this "debate;' asserted that questions needed to be asked. They did not take a position or provide a dear alternative to the Bush administration's emphasis on preventive war. Giving voice to the ever�present meme regarding the White House's public relations strategy, people on the street spoke of whether Bush had "made his case:' Nevertheless, on the second day of Senate debate on the use of force in Iraq, no one was on the floor-even though many were in the gallery. Vhy, at a time when the means of communication have been revolutionized, when people can contribute their own opinions and access those of others rapidly and immediately, why has democracy failed as a political form? "Why has the expansion and intensification of communication networks, the proliferation of the very tools of democracy, coincided with the stunting of left political ideals and the diminshment of progressive political struggle? These are the questions the idea of communicative capitalism answers.
The Fantasy of Abundance:
From Message to Contribution
The delirium. of the dot-com years was driven by a tremendous faith in speed, volume, and connectivity.10 The speed and volume of communicative transactions would generate new "synergies" and hence wealth. Although that bubble burst (to be followed by a smaller one encompassing social networking sites, the user as producer, and the Web 2.0 meme), a similar belief underlies the conviction that enhanced communications access facilitates democracy. The belief begins with the observation that more people than ever before can. make their opinions known. The Internet enables millions not simply to access information but to register their points of view on websites and blogs, to agree or disagree, to vote, and to send messages. Communications, media, and information enthusiasts point to this abundance of messages as an indication of the democratic potential of networked technologies.
TECHNOLOGY
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