INTERNATIONAL

E-Democracy: Greater Political Legitimacy?

Professor Dr. Max Kaase, International University, Bremen, Germany

Could "digital democracy" increase people's interest in political participation?

Electoral participation has become susceptible to changes in mood, and as a result, reacts in a particularly sensitive way to the given constellation of political issues and the candidates in the run-up to an election. Electronic democracy could quite conceivably increase electoral participation. However, in my view, the price of the total privatization of the electoral decision into people's own homes would be high, too high: the fundamental act of voting, as part of the process of electing and legitimizing governments, would lose all its symbolism, social significance and ultimately also its responsibility as a socially conscious exercise.

Will Internet facilitate electoral choices that are based upon more and better information?

In principal, yes, because the Internet provides direct access to an enormous amount of information. However, even if we ignore the question-one that touches on aspects of democratic equality-of whether all citizens can utilize these new information sources with equal competence, the diversity involved always raises questions about the quality and reliability of the information available. There will therefore be a need for dependable information brokerages and exchanges-this will be an important future task in the field of political education.

Plebiscitary elements are practically absent from the political system of the Federal Republic. To what extent does the Internet present opportunities to give greater significance to elements of direct democracy in Germany?

I believe it makes sense here to consider questions of electronic democracy in a systematic relationship with the issue of direct democracy. For many years now in the Federal Republic of Germany this debate has revolved around the introduction of plebiscitary elements into our constitution at the national level. Increasing the importance of such procedures with developments that range as far as electronic networking requires certain technical preconditions, the possibilities of which are already being extensively tested: for example, the digital signature, whose general introduction and use, however, will take a considerable time. Alongside this question-and of much greater significance-is the central issue of whether electronification can improve the quality of democracy in real terms compared to the status quo.

Do you believe that "digital democracy" is capable of raising the standard of political discourse?

I consider that impossible. Highly informed political discourse-this is something that is frequently overlooked-presupposes so much prior knowledge and experience that it can not simply be reproduced over the Internet. In principle, everyone with a connection to the Internet has access to contemporary discourse. Yet experience and sheer logic reveal the quantitative limits of discourse participation when all or only many citizens wish to take part. Although political discourse-for example, within and between parties and interest groups as well as in their interaction with political institutions, governments and politicians-has been permanently changed by the Internet, there is so far no evidence whatsoever that the overall quality and legitimacy of democratic politics has been increased as a result.

Interview conducted by Deutschland magazine. Text courtesy: Deutschland E4 N3,2001 June/July. Embassy of FRG in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Xuly Bet, An African on the Paris Fashion Show

Veronique VELLARD, France

Behind the Xuly Bet fashion label, there is Lamine Badian Kouyate, a Malian. His Boutique is in the fashionable forum des Halles in Paris. He started out in 1989 with an urban-pluri-ethnic fashion based on bits and pieces from second-hand clothes. By making then an "in" thing, he managed to impose an almost revolutionary style on the elitist world of French fashion. Today, Xuly Bet has taken up the challenge of production and international distribution. Let us take a look at the man who finds insopiration in the streets of Paris.

Xuly Bet was born in Bamako on 28 December 1962. He is the fifth child in a family of 6 boys. His father, married to a Senegalese doctor, was a minister. As a teenager, he went to Dakar and obtainedhis diploma from the school of Fine Arts. He decided to continue studying architecture and chose the city of Strasbourg. "I couldn't study architecture in Bamako or Dakar. France offered me an opportunity", he said. So Lamine set about constructing clothes.

His method was to turn clothes bought in the Flea Market into elegant and sexy outfits. Even if he no longer uses second-hand clothes, this creative attitude has remained the same. "What is characteristic of my style is sensuality, the second-skin aspect and the over-layering". Xuly Bet signature is easy to pick out with his red thread and visible seams. "I do not create "the woman". I create clothes for those who follow my idea". The same as for the seams, Xuly Bet's label is on the outside. If he does not conceal anything, the same is true of the bodies that he clothes. His models are close fitting and have low necklines. They are often made of lycra and Xuly Bet adds African know-how to European fabrics. Some of the patterns are made locally using traditional methods. For instance, the technique of "tying and dyeing in which the material is tied and then dipped into a vat of dye. The result is a unique, star shaped pattern with the colors distributed unevenly on the material. The designer creates for all women, even if, he admits, "young people are more sensitive to my style. It is also thanks to my prices which are relatively affordable". Faithful to the spirit of the street, his skirts and trousers are on sale at around 600 francs, 100US$, and dressed at 1000 francs. Although Xuly Bet refuses an over-sophisticated style, he still manages to enter the closed world of Paris fashion. He paid homage to Yuves St Laurent on the occasion of his fashion show at the Carrousel of the Louvre in 1998. "I have an affinity with him. He put women on a pedestal and takes an interest in what is happening outside the western world"'. Lamine, who is self-taught has inspired other designers by extolling simplicity. "I have brought materials from sport and lingerie into ready-to-wear. I have left the noble side of classical clothes. I have gone out into the streets". For his fashion shows he used models from all over the world. Some of then achieved a reputation thanks to him. This is the case with the Somalian Waris Dirie, a top model for Chanel and co-author of "Fleur du Desert", a work on female excision. The other stars are the women clothed by this Malian designer and there are many. They include the French actresses Ophelie Winter, Elodie Bouchez and Arielle Dombasle, the American singers Janet Jackson and Neneh Cherry and the Spanish actress Rossy de Palma.

Lamine Badian Kouyate makes up his models in Pantin. He admits that he has set up his business in this northeast suburb of Paris for reasons of space. His 500-meter square workshop gives him the feeling of the big open spaces of the Sahel. "Pantin has a past as a working-class industrial district which is close to my concerns. It is just on the edge of Paris and it is very practical to work". And, for a designer, Paris is unique. "It is quite an atypical city". Wandering about the Paris streets, he finds inspiration. "I love café life and watching people. You don't find that elsewhere".

"Success is difficult to manage, Lamine says simply. "We have to learn to meet demand. That is why we are going through a period of restructuring to organise the production and distribution better". He is now present all over world, France, England, Scandinavia, the US, Japan, Brazil and Africa, and is looking for partners to develop a line of sports clothes, lingerie and cosmetics. Through his work, this Malian designer is also a militant. "I want to transpose all the experience that I have acquired in France, to Africa". To help a continent, one needs to know it and so he is at one with his pseudonym Xuly Bet which, in wolof, means "He who keeps his eyes open, he whose look tries to see through appearances".