Open source politics

There is an interesting article here which links the informal networks of the US political campaigns with open source methodologies.

Open Source software is software constructed by volunteers who cooperate over the Internet to make free software and constantly improve it. The article argues that now political campaigns are going the same way. No longer does the party campaign office organise or pay for everything, many informal groups have sprung up to push their candidate of choice:

"The message is simple, so it's easy to fit outside efforts into an overall strategy without ever needing to coordinate with the home office. MoveOn.org can appoint itself the "Kerry attack machine" just as the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth can pick up the "angry pit bull" mantle for the Bush organization, without [the] knowledge or approval of campaign management."

Candidates have dabbled with this movement because of its convenient deniability. The Swift Boat vets can attack Kerry and do damage and then Bush can distance himself from them and avoid being seen as a mudslinger (in some eyes).

But this could well backfire spectacularly. The very advantage of these groups - that they are not part of the campaign heirarchy - could completely alter the political sphere. If a group of unknowns can pop-up and solicit funds to campaign for Bush or Kerry, then they could just as easily campaign for an independent like Ralph Nader or for the US Greens party. If these groups were widespread and organised enough they could begin to weaken the advantage of the Republican/Democrat profile in favour of real democracy, where everyone gets an equal chance.

Peering into the future it seems that for however long Internet set up costs stay low and involvement is unrestricted it will serve as a democratising force. If broadcasting is cheap then money has much less advantage over the poor and the Fox/News Ltd. machine becomes a thing of the past.

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