G O V E R N M E N T
Isaac Newton once said, "If I see farther, it is because I stand on the shoulders of giants who came before." That may work for individual subjects, but nations are a bit different. I mean, Great Britain couldn't stand on Athens's shoulders besides emulating a few elements. What Hobbes, and other philosophers such as John Locke, discovered was that in order for a nation to have true power, it must stand on the support of each citizen. A government may, in fact, be only as powerful as her weakest citizen. Machiavelli chose to see common citizens as pawns in his political game; Hobbes saw them as a tool to expand the nation, and citizens themselves were just finding a tangible voice in their formerly feudal society. Yet in relation to the open software movement, truly open government would allow everyone to contribute to solving the national problems. We wouldn't need a few geniuses to spot the "bugs", but rather with all of us aware and actively involved we could potentially solve issues within our own government. So is open government true democracy? If so, what problems will we create by allowing all citizens to shape our political scene?
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