The Network Society - University of Massachusetts Amherst

Afterword 427
forms that must not be diluted in the overall general trends emerging
and which are being defined more clearly in other social formations.
On the other hand, at the level of the ideological orientations of
political action which I consider to have remained pertinent in the
current social relations context, I would highlight all the central
importance, which, in my view, should continue to be given in the
new globalization context to the active reconciliation of the goals of
development with the perfection of the rule of law and the combat
against social inequality—three goals that united successive generations
of Portuguese citizens during the dictatorship. I believe that, in
the current circumstances, it not only makes total sense not to take a
step backward on this course at the national level, but also that it is
necessary at the international level to both contribute to and to implement,
through all means in our control, the range of intentions
included in that ideological triangle.
It was in the context of these ideological coordinates that, some
years ago, I decided to promote a cycle of conferences and debates
involving a large number of Portuguese and foreign specialists, on the
effect of the revolution in information and communications technologies
on the quality of democratic systems and, through them, on the
regulation of globalization.
At the time, the decision was made to deal with the new and old
media together, using the issues of electronic democracy, the use of
the Internet and the generalization of access to NICTs to once again
consider the problems of the relationship between the fields of politics
and the media that democracies always have to face.
In a country which, having achieved political democracy and liberalization
of the media at a late stage, is still far from establishing consistent
levels of auto-regulation in the institutional spaces in question, it
would make no sense to attempt to put into perspective the possibilities
of consolidating democracy through electronic/digital means without
dealing with and questioning the area of the conventional media.
The same concern with the socio-historic peculiarities of this country
has led me to take interest in matters of technological development
and entrepreneurial innovation in Portugal, simultaneously paying
attention to the specificity of our industrial fabric—particularly the