Wikipedia: Example for a future Electronic Democracy? Decision, Discipline and Discourse in the Collaborative Encyclopaedia

Abstract

This article describes the organisational mechanisms of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia. First we analyse the decision making process (DMP) including debates and consensus which Wikipedia employs, and make a connection with the Habermasian model of rational discourse.Then we analyse the disciplines, in the Foucauldian sense, which underly and permit this DMP. We find that on the theoretical plane, despite the harsh criticisms Habermas claimed against the writings of Foucault, we can see a rather complementary relation between the establishing of rational discourse in Wikipedia and the effects of its discipline. Then we show the resistances that thedecision-making process and the disciplines encounter, and the reactions that have emergedagainst these resistances. These findings lead on to a discussion of the normativity of Foucauldian disciplines and the possibility of their heterogeneity. Finally, we examine the possible implementations of the Wikipedia system to electronic democracy projects.

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