ABSTRACT
University of Chicago Law Professor Cass Sunstein argues that, by increasing the possibility of community, cyberspace might paradoxically undermine republic. The problem with Sunstein's claim is that the shared experiences of the republic he seeks to maintain are principally those by and for the majority. For minorities, then, the mass media generally provides the "Daily Them" – a vision of society focused on its dominant members. Listservs often serve as forums for lively debates, a characteristic that Sunstein believes is essential to a deliberative democracy. Cyberspace helps give members of minority groups a fuller sense of citizenship-a right to a practice of citizenship that better reflects who they are. While the Internet might encourage community based on insularity, it encourages its polar opposite as well-cosmopolitanism. Cosmopolitans seek a world in which common humanity takes precedence over national attachments. In many ways, cyberspace reflects the cosmopolitan ideal.
