If Karl Marx were alive today this is the book he would have written. This is the bold claim of Alexander Bard and Jan Söderqvist, the authors of Netocracy (Reuters).
For Marx, society’s power politics, ideology and social dynamics are shaped by the capitalist economy. The Swedish authors pick up where Marx left off and, after taking a long, hard look at the world, pose the questions: what is the major economic driving force of today and the future, and how will society change as a result? Their answers provide an intriguing glimpse into what the world could look like in the future.
We have yet to reach the tip of the information revolution. The more information technology dominates, the more culture, society and the economy change. It’s the birth of a “whole new world” — a world undergoing a paradigm shift right under our noses.
Say goodbye to the nation state and governments. Capitalism will be no more and its chief proponent, the bourgeoisie, will gradually lose power and become a mere “underclass”.
Bard and Söderqvist’s basic premise is that the breakthrough of digital interactivity as the dominant form of communication is a paradigm shift that entails, in turn, a shift in power of the same extent as when the bourgeoisie — aided by the invention of the printing press and mass media — wrested power from the feudal aristocracy.
The authors say the move from a society controlled by printed and broadcast mass media to an information age that provides interactivity is “at least as dramatic as the move from feudalism to capitalism”.
Today’s society is still a society of class divisions. What class power struggles will there be in an advanced information age, ask Bard and Söderqvist. Who will take over from the capitalists and the bourgeoisie as society’s new ruling classes? How will power be distributed within the new hierarchies?
Their answer: a powerful, pragmatic elite called the “netocrats” will emerge — a global, dominant class that will harness the information age and the opportunities it offers, such as digital interactivity. The netocrats will manipulate societies’ networks, control the flow of information and ultimately wield the most power in the future.
The Internet is changing everything. The dot com crash, say Bard and Söderqvist, is largely a result of an old-style capitalist economy and old capitalists failing to grasp the new, interactive media and the social dynamic it is creating.
Netocracy emphasises the major difference between yesterday’s mass media and the mass media of today and the future: digital interactivity. It is this interactivity that will change the social and political fabric of the world as ordinary users begin to create networks and communities around themselves that bypass traditional communication channels. It will be a world where knowledge, networking and social intelligence become the primary respected qualities. Money, the source of capitalism’s power today, becomes “vulgar”.
Another consequence of the authors’ theory is that the nation state will disappear. For Bard and Söderqvist the state is becoming increasingly irrelevant — global companies often operate across several countries, making it increasingly difficult to define their nationality. Voter turnouts around the world are dwindling and people are less willing to “die for their country”.
More people voted for the reality TV show Big Brother in the United Kingdom than in the national elections. Economies are moving offshore to the extent that there will be “nothing left to tax”. And if a government does not have control over its economy, then what does it have control of? Make way for a world government, they say.
Technology will empower individuals but disempower the control governments have over their citizens. Nation states will become less important while the netocrats and their networks, their “electronic tribes”, will have a huge impact on world events.
Bard and Söderqvist say that the nation state is a fundamental part of the capitalist paradigm and therefore has “no credibility in informational society, where communication is built upon tribal identities and subcultures that are constructed according to completely different principles”. Geographic space is becoming less significant on the Internet.
But how likely are governments to hand over power to the netocrats? If anything, recent history shows governments clutching for greater control: increased regulation of the Internet, vigilant taxing of offshore interests. And even though voter turnouts are waning, Australia makes it a criminal offence not to vote. It’s ironic that Sweden, the authors’ home, has one of the highest voter turnouts in the world.
The authors dismiss these as “counter trends”, small battles that will not change the inevitable course of the world’s netocratic future. They expect governments and capitalists to try to cling to power in the same way the feudal aristocracy did before giving in to the bourgeoisie.
Perhaps the authors’ most controversial claim is that “democracy is doomed”. But what will take its place is unclear. In fact, the netocracts bear an alarming resemblance to Plato’s omniscient philosopher-kings. Will they be the de facto rulers of the world? It’s all pretty idealistic.
It’s also unclear why the authors insist that a paradigm shift is needed. Why can’t democracy or capitalism exist hand-in-hand with the information revolution? Surely capitalists will do their utmost to harness digital interactivity for power and profit?
Despite these issues, Netocracy is a fresh take on the information revolution. Bard and Söderqvist’s concepts are clear and meticulously explained. Even if some of their claims are a bit ambitious, the book is a brave account of the challenges ahead.
Netocracy has been billed as one of the first major works of philosophy of the 21st century. It has moved the debate in the right direction and has people using new concepts to explain power politics. But it is just the start: these concepts need to be built on and further articulated.
Governments of the world, you have been warned.
Matthew Buckland is the editor of the Mail & Guardian Online.
Netocracy, published by Pearson Education, is for sale in most book stores. The recommended retail selling price is R319.95.