The democratising potential of the Internet and political parties in Romania

More than a decade ago, John Naisbitt was already heralding the death of representative democracy, as we know it, owing to the development of communications technologies (Naisbitt, 1989: 235). From the 1970s onward, American politics had entered a new era with an unprecedented number of referendums and initiatives regarding local politics initiated in a number of states and participation rates of 80 to 90 per cent. This form of consultation was seen to satisfy a need for ‘direct democracy’, the ‘heart and soul of participative democracy’ (Naisbitt, 1989: 234).