Could the digital generation become the generation of genuine democracy?

In his work The Public and it’s problems: An essay in political enquiry, John Dewey casts doubt on the efficacy of democracy without successfully representative participation from the civilian population. However, he also suggests how the reality of a democratically organised public may be non-existent. A prevalent issue for this idealistic concept is that questions of science, agriculture, industry and finance are highly technical and complex that often crucially require expert advice. With the running of a country concerning matters from sanitation to taxation, inquiries and analysis must be carried out by those trained and equipped. It is without doubt that this means the role of professionals, academics and policy experts are invaluable within government. But with such a vast population, so many people and so much public concern, out of this we must question how many people are competent to measure all the factors involved in reaching a decision? How many have the facts and resources available? How many have the time to devote to it? And how many actually want to? 

              Dewey recognises the open scepticism about the effect of voting expressed by the general public: “What difference does it make?” and “My vote never changed anything.” These phrases are still recognisable today, voicing the kind of pessimism that fuels voter apathy as people become more and more disillusioned with their personal impact in their country’s politics. Dewey also noted that it doesn’t require much reflection to realise that the only real decision the public is ever involved in is the choice of who gets the title of prime minister and realistically, this is only ever really a choice between two. This centralising movement presents the citizen with the illusion of choice but does very little for the voice of the individual. Despite this, the youth turnout in the most recent UK general election was at its highest in 25 years: 64%. It's unlikely you'd hear any student with a twitter account claiming that the youth are uninterested in politics. With the current world population at 7.6 billion and residents of the United Kingdom making up 66,573,504 of that, Dewey’s problem with a public ‘too diffused and scattered and too intricate in composition to identify and collaborate' is only more pressing today than when he wrote of it in 1927. So, in an age of advancing technology, mass communication and government bureaucracy- how is the public making its voice heard? 

               Plato said that a genuine state could hardly be larger than the number of persons capable of personal acquaintance but with social media and smartphones, the concept of a community is no longer rooted in geographical location and instant worldwide communication is as simple as pressing a button. With this in mind, surely governing bodies and citizens alike could use the internet as a platform for improving democratic method? But alas, this is not the case yet. In order for the government to be truly democratic, it must effectively combine expert theory and direct public influence. But as of currently, methods of influencing government from the public perspective is largely unsuccessful. Unions and petitions are often lost in the archaic procedures of getting a bill through parliament, protests and rallies often ignored and even professional opinions sometimes neglected. For example, in the education sector, over many years the government would publish the consultation documents for the national curriculum on the last day of the summer term with responses required on the first day of the new academic year. Unsurprisingly, the responses were limited. 

               Personally, I think that the public needs to show more interest in politics in general but I’m not surprised at the lack of care when there so often appears an in-congruence between popular public opinion and government decisions despite claims that the party in power is representing the people. According to Ofcom.org.uk, 94% of adults in the UK personally own/use a mobile phone. With globalised social media platforms giving such effective momentum to social change such as the Black Lives Matter movement, if there were, hypothetically, an app or website that allowed the government to share information for consultation and receive responses, it is undeniable that this modern method would make politics more accessible to the masses.