Disintermediation of political parties?

I'm reading the Lyons Review of Local Government "National prosperity, local choice and civic engagement" at the moment. It's a fairly seminal document, and a lot of the ideas contained within it were destined to reappear in the Local Government White Paper "Strong and prosperous communities", published in October 2006.

Both the Lyons Review and subsequently the White Paper, are concerned with levels of civic engagement in British society. They both reference the problem of low turn-out rates in local government elections.

But an interesting thing happened to me this week. Within the space of 24 hours, I received two completely separate emails, each asking me to sign the Petition Against The Road Tax on the Number 10 website. I duly signed. It seemed quite popular - in fact the TV news that night reported that a phenomenal 253,000 have signed it so far. I also signed the petition to get rid of British Summertime. It seems that, in spite of all that we say about political apathy in the post-cold war period, people still have opinions about particular interests, and want to make a difference if they can find a way of doing so.

So is the problem, in fact, political parties? That would seem to make sense, given the broad detachment from big ideas that is characteristic of post-Cold War intellectual life. Let's say that political parties have traditional been about a recognition of collective social interests and a formulation of over-arching ideas that meet those interests.

In a fragmented society that no longer believes in either broad social groupings or big ideas, could electronic petitions, and other micro-forms of consultation, in fact be the way forward for modern democracies? Not forever, I hope. I like to think that humanity will one day find it in itself to put the traumas of the 20th century behind it, and rehabilitate the Big Idea. But for the time being, it keeps the grey cells active, and maybe maintains the idea that people can make a difference.

To be honest, I don't even know whether or not it's a good thing. That's not the point of this entry. But that might be where things are headed. After all, librarians have to cope with disintermediation, so why shouldn't politicians feel some of the pain?