Overnight the Pirate Party has become a third political force in Germany, and has become much more than a dragnet trawling protest voters. According to Die Welt, the Pirate Party could be the pioneer of a new democracy in the post-industrial era, and indeed throughout Europe. The jury is still out on whether from the Pirates will prove to be more than a footnote to European democracy. But if the pirates are not crippled by growing pains they stand a good chance of formally transforming democracy in the 21st century, mastering the end of the era of growth, achieving a...