Network society and democratic political reforms

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to investigate the relationship between Network society and democratic reform in Iran. First I review the ideas of Habermas, Giddens, Castelle, Foucaut, Toffler, Pitt and Borgmann on network- technological society. Then by analyzing the concept of democracy as defined by Lock, Mill, Macpherson, Arendt and new thinkers, I propose a relationship between network society and democratic reform. To describe this relationship, I introduce some data gathered by participant observation about the 10th running for presidential voting in Iran. Although new media such as computer mobiles and satellite can help conservative candidates to improve their competitive efforts, the reformist who do not access to the state mass media, as radio, television, independent newspapers, can use new devices to sharpen their cry for democratic reform. However, by Islam law in Iran,and authority of jurisprudence (Velayat Faqih), there is no democratic party according to western criteria.