Electronic Republic: Reshaping American Democracy for the Information Age

Lawrence Grossman's The Electronic Republic makes a cautious but ultimately optimistic case for the potential of electronic media to transform democratic government. The author is not blind to the complexities and ironies of a TV-addled electorate, and a government that is both enslaved by and seemingly impervious to popular opinion. But he believes in, and makes a reasonable case for, the power of instant communications--computer networks, TV, telephones, and wireless communications--to remake the democratic process. The final goal he forsees is direct and immediate democracy. Grossman is not the first writer to broach the subject of electronic government, and at times, his optimism seems a bit too pat. But this still doesn't detract from the book's real strength: giving us a view of our democratic institutions and electronic media from the perspective of sweeping historical change.