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Republic.com, Cass R. Sunstein (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), 240 pp., $29.95 cloth, $12.95 paper, $9.95 e-book.
The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World, Lawrence Lessig (New York: Random House, 2001), 352 pp., $30 cloth, $15 paper, $24 e-book.
In the wake of dot-com busts, recession, and the decline of techno-utopianism, it is reasonable to ask what optimism is still warranted concerning the novel forms of communication and cohabitation the Internet once promised. Sunstein and Lessig make the case for keeping the faith in the idea of a digital commons, but both warn that there is cause for concern regarding its health and integrity.
How will new media affect the capacity of citizens to govern themselves? What are the social preconditions of a well-functioning system of democratic deliberation, or of individual freedom itself? These are the basic concerns of Sunstein, a leading constitutional expert and specialist in freedom of expression. He argues that a wellfunctioning system of free expression-key to a republic with a deliberative process-- must meet two requirements. First, people should be exposed to materials that they would not necessarily have chosen. Second, many or most citizens should have a range of common experiences. But the increased ability for advanced filtering of information (Sunstein's ideal-type is the "perfect information filter") by individuals on the one hand, and the expansion of the media industry allowing additional choice and market fragmentation on the other, leads Sunstein to question the viability of our democracies. With the specificity of filtering we may lose sight of opposing views, and with media diversity we lose our common experiences.
Sunstein proposes a number of prescriptions to...