The changing democractic experiment

As I study journalism and politics throughout history and get more involved with the public I'm noticing an interesting evolution in the great American democratic experiment. There's an emphasis on citizen politics more than ever before, manifested in citizen journalism, citizen diplomats, hyper-local political participation (this is not new and arguably less than active than in the past) and other groups, corporations and etc. who want citizens to participate.

John Dewey called this fragmentation of the public and Aristotle would fear the treachery of direct or pure democracy, but is it? Even Dewey said there must be something to connect people and lo! there is the Internet. Aristotle was simply afraid of people's ignorance, he believed whole heartedly in what we consider now consider tyranny.

And how does that relate to us? Specifically, the Soup is a manifestation of this change where fragmented segments of journalists - not even of the larger public - can meet in one place and share ideas and make or direct change. Think of that on a larger scale and you have the United States and you'll find a shift from the republican form of government we all know and more or less dislike, toward a more people-driven form of government that we all want and will more or less dislike.