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The effectiveness of an individual’s decisions to choose the best options depends on her or his information about the subject and the environment; as a result, the effectiveness of democracies which aggregate these individual decisions depends on the consideration of timely information by citizens. Behind the concept of Democracy there lies an idea that this paper calls the Democratic Wisdom Hypothesis. Based on this hypothesis democratic systems can be considered the best social system for human communities and societies; and consequently, living in a democracy can be considered a human right; However, democratic systems have had many different performances and their effectiveness has not been the same.

To describe the level of effectiveness of democratic systems in making the wisest decisions this paper proposes the Informatics Theory of Effective Democracy; afterwards, the theory is tested by describing some observations in different societies; and then, it is used to predict the future of the democracies in the light of the rapid progress in communication technologies like IP6, Internet2 , Semantic Web and all-in-one mobile communication devices. As a result of the improvements in these new technologies that will solve the problems of existing implementations, The theory predicts, we will observe that the quality of participation of citizens in democratic decision making will grow and the effectiveness of democratic systems will improve.

Stream: Technology in Community

Amir H. Ghaseminejad is an instructor in Capilano College Business Administration Department where he teaches Information and Strategic Management, Business Technology Disaster Recovery Planning, Advanced Web Design. He also teaches Operating Systems, Networking, Database design and Object Oriented Programming as well as Marketing and Business Computing in Computer Science and Information Systems and Business Management Departments of Langara College, he has taught Networking and TCPIP in British Columbia Institute of Technology as well. Before coming to Vancouver in Beautiful British Columbia, he has taught Computer Organization and Electronics courses in Sharif University of Technology, Faculty of Electrical Engineering in Tehran, where he got a Master of Science Degree in Computer Hardware and Bachelor of Science in Electronics Engineering. He has many years of experience in management and business and holds many industry standard certifications in Internet Technologies and Operating Systems and Databases. His research interests include Technology and Society interrelationships, Systems Analysis, Databases and Information Management Software. His current research is on “The Impact of Technological Achievements on Implementation of Democracy and
The Technological Requirements for Implementation of Participatory Democracy”

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Democratic decisions are made by the majority of the population but one can define the majority required for choosing a social choice in many different ways. This paper explores different definitions of majority and different voting methods to find their strengths and weaknesses. Then it will use systems modeling to choose better methods and will show how availability, increased efficiency and decreased cost of modern technologies may eventually effect the decision making processes; and, as an example, the possible future of “first past the post” and “runoff” electoral systems will be discussed.

Stream: Technology in Community

 

Amir H. Ghaseminejad is a faculty member at Capilano College, School of Business, where he teaches Information and Strategic Management, Business Technology Disaster Recovery Planning and Advanced Web Design. He also teaches Operating Systems, Networking, Database design and Object Oriented Programming as well as Marketing and Business Computing in Computer Science and Information Systems and Business Management Departments of Langara College, he has taught Networking and TCPIP in British Columbia Institute of Technology as well. Before coming to Vancouver in Beautiful British Columbia, he has taught Computer Organization and Electronics courses in Sharif University of Technology, Faculty of Electrical Engineering in Tehran, where he got a Master of Science Degree in Computer Hardware and Bachelor of Science in Electronics Engineering. He has many years of experience in management and business and holds many industry standard certifications in Internet Technologies and Operating Systems and Databases. His research interests include Technology and Society interrelationships, Systems Analysis, Databases and Information Management Software. He has proposed the “Informatics Theory of Effective Democracy” for “Democratic Wisdom Hypothesis” and his current research is on “Relativity of Democracy” and “Technological Requirements for Implementation of Direct Democracy”.