Additionally, the breakdown of trust and mutual commitment which is resulting from this discontinuity between the governors and the governed is eroding the commitment to and the efficacy of public institutions in all jurisdictions. The accountability for the policy outcomes would still rest with those responsible but the broader public would share responsibility since they had had the opportunity for free participation and consultation within a context of legitimate and legitimized open discussion. Accountability within the policy process thus would no longer be purely internal and bureaucratic but also external and public. As the use of Internet resources for informal discourse on public policy is becoming increasingly sophisticated those so empowered also are becoming impatient at their inability to engage with the formal policy process. The problem may be in fact, generational rather than structural.
Public servants engage in public discussion of policy even in speculative mode at their peril.
Politicians and particularly Cabinet Members are very jealous of their prerogatives in this area and most were formed and have lived their political lives in the hot house atmosphere of Parliament, safely insulated from the babble of the Internet bazaar. The creativity and even inevitability of the Internet-enabled policy bazaar presents both risks and opportunities. Risks to effective management and democratic accountability, and opportunities for a new form and quality of citizenship reflecting a real and effective engagement in the substance of governance and not simply with its form. To realize the opportunities and to minimize the risks there is a need to develop new and Internet savvy methods for public management and democratic governance. This task is a formidable but a necessary one and should be engaged in sooner rather than later as the current discontinuities are eroding the credibility of governments world-wide and increasingly government's capacity to undertake its assigned responsibilities in the most effective and efficient means currently available.