The Computer as a Democratizer
                                 by Michael Hauben
	  		        hauben@columbia.edu
 
"...only through diversity of opinion is there, in the existing
state of human intellect, a chance of fair play to all sides of
the truth."
   (John Stuart Mill, "On Liberty, "Three Essays, Oxford, 1975, 
    pg.60) 
 
"In a very real sense, Usenet is a marketplace of ideas."
   (Bart Anderson, Bryan Costales, and Harry Henderson, Unix 
    Communications, Indiana, 1991, pg.224)
 
   Political thought has developed as writers presented the
theoretical basis behind the various class structures from
aristocracy to democracy. Plato wrote of the rule of the elite
Guardians. Thomas Paine wrote why people need control of their
governments. The computer connects to this democratizing trend
through facilitating wider communications among individual
citizens to the whole body of citizens.
 
   James Mill, the father of John Stuart Mill, takes a look at
democracy in his article "Liberty of the Press" from the 1825
Supplement to the Encyclopedia Britannica. He writes about the
question of a government that works as it should - for the
advantage and gain of the people instead of the advantage and
gain for those in control. Mill sees the government necessarily
being corrupted if the chance exists. Those in the position of
rule, would abuse that power for their advantage. Mill describes,
"If one man saw that he might promote misrule for his own advan-
tage, so would another; so, of course would they all." ( James
Mill, "Essay on Liberty of the Press", pg.20) Mill says that the
people need a check on those in government. People need to keep
watch on their government in order to make sure this government
works in the interest of the many. Mill thus concludes, "There
can be no adequate check without the freedom of the press. The
evidence of this is irresistible." (Mill, pg.18)
 
   What Mill often phrases as freedom of the press, or liberty of
the press, is more precisely defined as the uncensored press. The
uncensored press provides for the dissemination of information
that allows the reader or thinker to do two things. First, a
person can size up the issue and honestly decide his or her own
position. Second, as the press is uncensored, this person can
make his distinctive contribution available for other people to
consider and appreciate. Thus what Mill calls "freedom of the
press" makes possible the free flow and exchange of different
ideas.
 
   Thomas Paine, in The Rights of Man, describes a fundamental
principle of democracy. Paine writes, "that the right of altering
the government was a national right, and not a right of the
government."(pg.341) Mill also expresses that active
participation by the populace is a necessary principle of
democracy. He writes:
 
   "Unless a door is left open to the resistance of the
   government, in the largest sense of the word, the doctrine of 
   passive obedience is adopted; and the consequence is, the 
   universal prevalence of the misgovernment, ensuring the misery 
   and degradation of the people." (Mill, pg.13)
 
   Another principle Mill links democracy to, is the right of the
people to define who can responsibly represent their will.
However, this right requires information to make a proper deci-
sion. Mill declares:
 
   "We may then ask, if there are any possible means by which the
   people can make a good choice, besides liberty of the press? 
   The very foundation of a good choice is knowledge. The fuller 
   and more perfect the knowledge, the better the chance, where 
   all sinister interest is absent, of a good choice. How can the 
   people receive the most perfect knowledge relative to the 
   characters of those who present themselves to their choice, 
   but by information conveyed freely, and without reserve, from 
   one to another?" (Mill, pg.19)
 
     Without information being available to the people, the 
candidates for office can be either as bad as the incumbents or 
worse. Therefore there is a need to prevent the government from 
censoring the information available to people. Mill explains:
 
   "If it is in the power of their rulers to permit one person
   and forbid another, the people may be sure that a false 
   report, - a report calculated to make them believe that they 
   are well governed, when they are ill-governed, will be often 
   presented to them." (Mill, pg.20)
 
   After electing their representatives, democracy gives the
public the right to evaluate their chosen representatives in
office. The public continually needs information as to how their
chosen representatives are fulfilling their role. Once these rep-
resentatives have abused their power, Paine's and Mill's
principle allows the public to replace those abusers. Mill also
clarifies that free use of the means of communication is another
extremely important principle:
   "That an accurate report of what is done by each of the
   representatives, a transcript of his speeches, and a statement 
   of his propositions and votes, is necessary to be laid before 
   the people, to enable them to judge of his conduct, nobody, we 
   presume, will deny. This requires the use of the cheapest 
   means of communication, and, we add, the free use of those 
   means. Unless every man has the liberty of publishing the 
   proceedings of the Legislative Assembly, the people can have 
   no security that they are fairly published." (Mill pg.20)
 
   Ignorance, Thomas Paine calls the absence of knowledge and
says that man with knowledge cannot be returned to a state of
ignorance. (The Rights of Man, pg.357) James Mill shows how the
knowledge man thirsts after leads to a communal feeling. General
conformity of opinion seeds resistance against misgovernment.
Both conformity of opinion and resistance require general
information or knowledge. Mill explains:
   "In all countries people have either a power legally and
   peaceably of removing their governors, or they have not that 
   power. If they have not that power, they can only obtain very 
   considerable ameliorations of their governments by resistance, 
   by applying physical force to their rulers, or, at least, by 
   threats so likely to be followed by performance, as may 
   frighten their rulers into compliance. But resistance, to have 
   this effect, must be general. To be general, it must spring 
   from a general conformity of opinion, and a general knowledge 
   of that conformity. How is this effect to be produced, but by 
   some means, fully enjoyed by the people of communicating their 
   sentiments to one another? Unless the people can all meet in 
   general assembly, there is no other means, known to the world, 
   of attaining this object, to be compared with freedom of the 
   press." (Mill, pg.18)
 
   In the previous quote Mill places his championing of the
freedom of press as a realistic alternative to Rousseau's general
assembly, which is not possible most of the time. Mill expands on
the freedom of the press by setting the rules. An opinion cannot
be well founded until its converse is also present. Here he sets
forth the importance of developing your own opinion from those
that exist. Mill writes:
   "We have then arrived at the following important conclusions,
   -- that there is no safety to the people in allowing anybody 
   to choose opinions for them; that there are no marks by which 
   it can be decided beforehand, what opinions are true and what 
   are false; that there must, therefore, be equal freedom of 
   declaring all opinions both true and false; and that, when all 
   opinions, true and false, are equally declared, the assent of 
   the greater number, when their interests are not opposed to 
   them, may always be expected to be given to the true. These 
   principles, the foundation of which appears to be impregnable, 
   suffice for the speedy determination of every practical 
   question." (Mill, pg.23)
 
   The technology that is the personal computer, international
computer networks, and other recent contributions embody and put
into practice James Mill's theory of liberty of the press. The
personal computer makes it affordable for most people to have an
information access station in their very own home. There are
international computer networks that exist which allow a person
to have debates with other people across the world, search for
data in various data banks, or even play a computer game.
 
   If a person is affiliated with a university community, works
at a business which pays to connect to the Internet, or pays a
special service a fee, he or she can connect to a network of
computer networks around the world. A connection to this interna-
tional network empowers a person by giving him access to various
services. These services include electronic mail, which means the
ability to send private messages electronically to people across
the world who also have electronic mail boxes. The public alter-
native to this is a service called Usenet News. This service is
an example of James Mill's democratic principles.
 
   Usenet News consists of many newsgroups which each cover a
broad, but yet specific topic. People who utilize Usenet News
typically pick certain newsgroups or topics to focus on. Every
group has several items of discussion going on at the same time.
Some examples of newsgroups include serious topics such as
talk.politics.theory, - people "talking" about current issues
and political theory, sci.econ - people discussing the science of
economics, soc.culture.usa - people debating questions of United
States society; and recreational topics (which might also be
serious) such as alt.rock-n-roll - discussing various aspects of
rock music, rec.sport.hockey - a discussion of hockey and
rec.humor - jokes and humor. The discussions are very active and
provide a source of information that fulfills James Mill's cri-
teria for both more oversight over government and a more informed
population. In a sense, what was once impossible, is now possi-
ble; everyone's letter to the editor is published. (Hauben,
Interview with Staff Member, The Amateur Computerist, v.4 n.2-3
pg.14) What is important is that Usenet News is conducted public-
ly, and is uncensored. This means that everyone can both
contribute and gain from everyone else's opinion.
 
   The importance of Usenet News also exists in that it is an
improvement in communications technology from that of previous
telecommunications. The predecessors to computer networks were
the Ham Radio and Citizen Band Radio (CB). The computer network
is an advance in that it is easier to store, reproduce and
utilize the communications. It is easier to continue a prolonged
question and answer session or debate. The newsgroups on Usenet
News have a distribution designation which allows them to be
available to a wide variety of different size areas - local,
city, national, or international. This allows for a variety of
uses. The problem with the Internet is that in a sense it is only
open to those who either have it provided to them by a university
or company that they are affiliated with, or who pay for it. This
limits part of the current development of the computer networks.
 
   An example of a public enterprise, however, is a computer
service called Freenet in Cleveland, Ohio. Freenet is operated by
Case Western Reserve University as a community service. Anyone
with a personal computer and a modem (a device to connect to
other computers over existing phone lines) can call a local phone
number to connect to Freenet. If members of the public do not own
computers, they can use Freenet at the public library. Besides
Usenet News, Freenet provides free access to a vast variety of
information databases and community information. Freenet is just
one example of the computer networks becoming much more readily
available to broad sectors of society. As part of its databases,
Freenet includes Supreme Court decisions, discussion of political
issues and candidates, and debate over contemporary laws. Freenet
is beginning to exemplify Mill's principle that democracy re-
quires the "use of the cheapest means of communication, and, we
add, the free use of those means." (Mill, pg.20)
 
   This is an exciting time to see the democratic ideas of some
great political thinkers beginning to be practiced. James Mill
wrote that for government to serve the people, it must be watched
by the people utilizing an uncensored press. Freedom of the press
also makes possible the debate necessary for the forming of
well-founded opinions by the people. Usenet and Freenet are
examples of the contemporary electronic practice of the
uncensored accessible press required by Mill. These networks are
also the result of hard work by many people aspiring for more
democracy. However, they still require more help from those
dedicated to the hard fight against tyranny.
 
                          Bibliography
 
Anderson, Bart, Bryan Costales, and Harry Henderson, Unix
Communications Indiana, 1991.
 
Hauben, Michael, "Interview with a Staff Member," The Amateur
Computerist, v.4 n.2-3.
 
Mill, James, Essays on Government, Jurisprudence, Liberty of the
Press, and Law of Nations, reprint, Kelley Publishers, New York,
1967.
 
Mill, John Stuart, "On Liberty" in Three Essays, Oxford, 1975.
 
Paine, Thomas, The Rights of Man in Two Classics of the French
Revolution, Anchor Books, Doubleday. New York, 1989.
 
Watkins, Beverly T, "Freenet helps Case Western fulfill its
Community-Service Mission," April 29, 1992, Chronicle of Higher
Education, pg.A21.