Venue: Landmark, Apex Plaza, Nungambakkam High Road, Chennai, India

Tickets: Free, email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) for more information.

India is not only the world’s largest democracy, but also one of the most high-tech, having pioneered electronic voting machines. Technology has not only modernised the physical act of voting, however, but arguably transformed the practice of democracy more generally. Politics now pervades the internet, with politicians and activists taking advantage of everything from email to blogs, video-sharing and social networking sites. Laptops and mobile phones have become increasingly affordable and highly-effective political tools. People have the freedom to access public information like never before, and to publish their own opinions, challenging traditional sources of authority: ‘citizen journalists’ break stories and electoral candidates connect with their electorates via YouTube. But how revolutionary is new technology really? Does it really lead to a redistribution of political power? Or are political parties and multinational corporations simply using new technology for their own traditional ends?

New technology has certainly opened the door for the majority, rather than the minority, to create and have their say and engage in political activism. Chinese dissident activists can communicate beneath the radar of the authorities, while in democracies like India, individuals have the potential to communicate across great distances and regardless of social boundaries. But does the reality live up to the hype? Or do people prefer to use the new technology for more mundane purposes like entertainment and chatting to friends? Does the cost of technology unfairly exclude some of those who most need a political voice? As some fear with electronic voting machines, might technical flaws or ‘gremlins’ actually undermine democracy? And even when everything works perfectly, might the informality and anonymity of the web itself undermine democracy by encouraging incivility and offence, or allowing people to communicate only with others who share their own opinions? Can citizens and politicians alike harness the potential of the internet to develop new and more open forms of democratic engagement, or should politics come back down to Earth?

The discussion will be introduced by Claire Fox, director, Institute of Ideas