The Information Revolution Gets Political
As computing power has become cheaper and computers have shrunk to the size of a cellphone, the decentralizing effects have been dramatic. But, while the information revolution could, in theory, reduce states’ power and increase that of non-state actors, politics and power are more complex than such technological determinism implies.
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NEW DELHI – The second anniversary of the “Arab Spring” in Egypt was marked by riots in Tahrir Square that made many observers fear that their optimistic projections in 2011 had been dashed. Part of the problem is that expectations had been distorted by a metaphor that described events in short-run terms. If, instead of “Arab Spring,” we had spoken of “Arab revolutions,” we might have had more realistic expectations. Revolutions unfold over decades, not seasons or years.