One path moves from the state towards the individual. The other threatens to shrink the individual to zero. The old political mathematics, governing from the numbers, becomes an increasingly hazardous formula. New technology ensures that individuals and small groups of people can have wide impact if they use their new power cleverly. Government has always been about power, and e-government is no exception.
Miniaturized technologies miniaturize institutions.
In time, the microchip will destroy the nation-state. It will give small groups and even individuals the capacity to employ violence in ways that could overturn governments and destroy large organizations. Whether their prediction comes to pass, whether we face an inevitable destruction of nations, remains to be seen. There is growing evidence that the nation becomes more important for citizens the more the world system becomes an integrated whole. Already, piece by piece, a little here and a little there, sovereignty is being redefined.