#Republic: Divided Democracy in the Age of Social Media

Cass R. Sunstein

Published by Princeton University Press 2017

#Republic

Divided Democracy in the Age of Social Media

Cass R. Sunstein

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400884711

Overview
Contents

About this book

As the Internet grows more sophisticated, it is creating new threats to democracy. Social media companies such as Facebook can sort us ever more efficiently into groups of the like-minded, creating echo chambers that amplify our views. It's no accident that on some occasions, people of different political views cannot even understand each other. It's also no surprise that terrorist groups have been able to exploit social media to deadly effect.

Welcome to the age of #Republic.

In this revealing book, Cass Sunstein, the New York Times bestselling author of Nudge and The World According to Star Wars, shows how today's Internet is driving political fragmentation, polarization, and even extremism—and what can be done about it.

Thoroughly rethinking the critical relationship between democracy and the Internet, Sunstein describes how the online world creates "cybercascades," exploits "confirmation bias," and assists "polarization entrepreneurs." And he explains why online fragmentation endangers the shared conversations, experiences, and understandings that are the lifeblood of democracy.

In response, Sunstein proposes practical and legal changes to make the Internet friendlier to democratic deliberation. These changes would get us out of our information cocoons by increasing the frequency of unchosen, unplanned encounters and exposing us to people, places, things, and ideas that we would never have picked for our Twitter feed.

#Republic need not be an ironic term. As Sunstein shows, it can be a rallying cry for the kind of democracy that citizens of diverse societies most need.

Author / Editor information

Sunstein Cass R. :

Cass R. Sunstein is the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard Law School. His many books include the New York Times bestsellers Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness (with Richard H. Thaler) and The World According to Star Wars. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Reviews

"What went wrong with social media and also with democracy? Here’s the guy who saw it coming, and yes he does have all the answers."--Tyler Cowen, author of The Great Stagnation

Praise for Republic.com and Republic.com 2.0: "A refreshing counter to overly optimistic perspectives on the internet and democracy."--William Dutton, Times Higher Education

Praise for Republic.com and Republic.com 2.0: "A splendid antidote to the views of the utopian populists who equate democracy with information choice provided over the internet."--B. Cooper, Choice

Praise for Republic.com and Republic.com 2.0: "Republic.com enraged many because it asked a set of uncomfortable questions that few had a way of answering. . . . Sunstein continues to press these difficult questions, not as an attack on new technologies but as a challenge to make them make democracy work. This is a compelling if sober set of questions from America's foremost legal scholar."—Lawrence Lessig, Stanford University

Praise for Republic.com and Republic.com 2.0: "Cass Sunstein sounds a timely warning in this concise, sophisticated account of the rise of the internet culture."--Peter Aspden, Financial Times

Praise for Republic.com and Republic.com 2.0: "This perceptive volume effectively illuminates the contradictory impulses at the heart of the citizen-consumer."--Publishers Weekly

Praise for Republic.com and Republic.com 2.0: "Lucid and valuable."--Jerome Weeks, San Francisco Chronicle

Praise for Republic.com and Republic.com 2.0: "Raises important and troubling questions about the effects of the Internet on a democratic society."--Stephen Labaton, New York Times Book Review

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
PREFACE Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
1. THE DAILY ME Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
2. AN ANALOGY AND AN IDEAL Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	31
3. POLARIZATION Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	59
4. CYBERCASCADES Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	98
5. SOCIAL GLUE AND SPREADING INFORMATION Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	137
6. CITIZENS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	157
7. WHAT’S REGULATION? A PLEA Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	176
8. FREEDOM OF SPEECH Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	191
9. PROPOSALS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	213
10. TERRORISM .COM Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	234
11. #REPUBLIC Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	252
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	263
NOTES Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	265
INDEX Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	287

Language: English
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Audience: General/trade;Professional and scholarly;College/higher education;
Pages
- Main content: 280

eBook

Published: April 10, 2017
ISBN: 9781400884711