I think that maybe part of what Joichi is getting at in talking about "emergent democracy" relates to the transaction costs of democratic organization.

There is a lot of economic theory about how transaction costs affect markets and interests in property, etc.

One of the problems with democracy, or grass-roots organization in general, is that it takes too much work just to communicate. This is why, for instance, when pollution affects a large number of people a little bit, they don't organize to stop it; the transaction costs of organization are higher for each person than the cost of the small bit of pollution they receive.

But if we reduce transaction costs through media like blogs, maybe these sorts of groups will start to spontaneously organize and start to solve these sorts of market problems. I think, though, that the costs have to be reduced to almost zero for this to happen. Even the cost of waiting 5 minutes to dial up an ISP is too long. Maybe with broadband, even searching for the right website is too long. But if people could just type in a word or two and find the right tool for organizing, something very interesting might begin to happen... hmm.