#republic

Harvard law professor and bestselling author of Nudge has produced another game changing book about divided democracy in the age of social media. Although his thesis of fragmentation and polarisation is best illustrated by his chapter on polarisation entrepreneurs on terrorist sites, he argues convincingly that the issues are far more widespread, and affect us all. He quotes John Stuart Mill, writing in 1848, that it is essential for us to be exposed to people and ideas dissimilar to ourselves, what Sunstein calls competing perspectives. Facebook holds out the prospect of the Daily Me newsfeed based on filtering one's preferences and views, but this process creates 'echo chambers' of self similarity and group identity based on like-mindedness. This can be a self-reinforcing process as we become less open to arguments from a different perspective. Sunstein gives the telling example of the polarising issues of GMOs and climate change, where the dominant scientific position on the former is mainly espoused by Republicans, while on the latter it is by Democrats.

This shows how prior ideological commitments tend to shape our views, with, as David Hume observed, reason being the slave of our passions and reflecting our confirmation bias. The author draws an important distinction between our roles as citizens and consumers in relation to free speech and free choice. His proposals encourage a commitment to public forums and democratic deliberation or deliberative democracy, where we are exposed to opposing viewpoints and serendipitous encounters in order to encourage us out of our self-created information cocoons. As Benjamin Franklin observed when referring to the American Constitution, its status as a republic must be carefully guarded and nurtured. As the author's colleague Lawrence Lessig remarks, we need a public informed enough to govern itself in order to uphold democratic ideals. Essential reading for our time.