Could social networks replace politicians?

Ok, this blog post is a bit random but it came to me while driving my car earlier today. There was a discussion on the radio relating to members of Parliament (MPs) and what they get paid. During the debate the merits of MPs, what they do and how much they get paid. One caller made the point that MPs have very little impact when it comes to policy making and representing the thoughts of the people/country.

There is an element of truth in this. Of course, our political systems work are based on methods which are now hundreds of years old, which is understandable. But this made me think. In the future, will we need MPs to make decisions on policy for us? Perhaps in the (not to distant?) future, we will all have our own unique and secure online ID's (or maybe ID cards, but I don't think it is a good idea to go there...). Using these approved IDs, we may be able to share thoughts and opinions with central government and perhaps place votes. There are huge issues to be addressed in terms of security, authenticity and privacy amongst others, but with the continued growth of social networking websites, perhaps these issues can be dealt with by the 'big players' which have a trust factor and infrastructure in place.

If we could vote using these platforms, or something similar, the voting population could dramatically increase (it has supposedly been in decline for along time). In addition, users would be able to vote on a wide variety of issues very easily and then this could be collated much faster than is possible now. By giving people access to have more of a say, you would be able to gauge opinion far more effectively than traditional methods and have a much better idea on what policies are/aren't wanted (e.g. Should MP's be forced to publish all of their expenses or not?). It would also allow those who are unable to vote, to share their thoughts much easier and contribute to the overall voting figures.

Politics isn't my strong point, so please don't shoot me down for airing some random thoughts here. Maybe this type of process could never work, but it's worth consideration as there are already trials of e-Voting in operation. Why not take the vote to where the audience is? Maybe the social networks could have a more important role in our future than we think...