Democratisation and Networked Communication (original) (raw)

Democracy and the Internet: Emerging Lessons for the 21st Century Public Sphere

The 54th Annual Conference of the Political Studies …, 2004

The discussion on new media and democracy has traditionally taken place within two binary oppositions: between 'optimists' and 'pessimists', and between the paradigm of technological determinism as a whole and the model of 'reinforcement'. Despite their contributions, these paradigms make an artificial distinction between technology and human agency in an attempt to calculate the net effect of the Internet on democracy. In so doing, they either reduce reality to the means or they completely strip politics of the means' impact. Recent models of 'acceleration', 'amplification' and 'institution building' take into account both pre-existing tendencies and technological change and raise a different set of questions that can help us understand and manage change. Conflicting phenomena emerge across the board affecting access, nationality, control, identity and voice. The complexity and the scale of the 21 st century public sphere mean that political decisions need to be taken in order to realise the opportunities and face the challenges facilitated by the Internet.

Democracy and the Internet: Access, Engagement and Deliberation

Journal of Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics, 2006

The internet has the capacity to facilitate the creation of new forms of civic engagement, but the realisation of these opportunities requires institutional and cultural reinforcement. The democratic character of e-citizenship and the equal distribution of online resources to the public require the fulfilment of four conditions: access, engagement (incorporating education, motivation and trust), meaningful deliberation and a link between civic input and public policy output. Furthermore, the gap between the main features of cyberspace and the inherent prerequisites of democracy, such as a finite space and a set of rules, create tensions that need to be negotiated politically. Although the empirical evidence available includes some encouraging signs regarding the future use of the internet for civic engagement, the existing limitations and obstacles mean that the new media will complement, rather than replace, the old media as a democratic public sphere.

Modes of participation and democratization on the Internet

This article reviews recent development in the area of political discourse and the Internet of interest to scholars in linguistics, discourse analysis and communications studies. It takes as its framework the concept of 'participation' and discusses how the Internet has altered modes of political participation, from the macro-politics of governance and political activism to the micro-politics of everyday life. It begins by making a distinction between discourse on the Internet and discourse about the Internet, showing how the way information technology is discursively constructed affects how it is used. It then goes on to consider how the Internet is changing citizen's participation in the public sphere though a transformation and redefinition of information, and whether or not computer mediated communication is suited to the kind of deliberative debate that fosters democracy. Finally, it discusses the formation and discursive practices of on-line

Can the internet reinvent democracy?

The internet, has been expected to modify the very nature of the political discourse by delivering a democratic surplus. It has frequently been regarded as the medium though which the right balance between participation and representation can be achieved. The vary nature of the medium has generated great levels of interest and debate on what type of political activity could be performed online. This paper studies the heuristics of online participation in Ireland and, by addressing the issue of who participates online, it investigates the type of scenario that can be expected to develop in the near future. Using survey data from the Irish National Election Study 2007, this article offers an insight on the process of gathering politically relevant information online and on whether such an activity may lead to further political engagement. Evidence of quite limited but possibly escalating forms of online engagement is found.

The Internet: Simulacrum of Democracy?

2007

This chapter argues that depending on what criteria is used to evaluate the Internet's democratizing potential, one can easily arrive at disparate assessments of the medium's impact on society. If the Internet is assumed to be a tool that inherently enhances freedom of communication and social mobilization, then the medium will likely be evaluated positively. Essentially, technology per se does not foster nor hamper participatory democratic culture. Instead, users of the technology determine if the civic and democratizing potential of interactive communication technology can be realized. Therefore, the Internet is only a tool that enables users to disseminate their ideas and opinions, ideally 'without fear or favour', and to freely seek and receive information from global sources. The 'democratising' influence of the Internet is only as effective as allowed for by the country's communication, political, legal and institutional structures, the public discursive culture and the people's readiness to actively engage in the political process by using the Internet as the medium for this engagement.

The Internet and Democracy: The Causal Links Between Technology and Politics

International Journal of Public Administration, 2002

This paper strives to explicate the causal links between changing technology and democratic governance. Its overarching goal is to define the relevant concepts of communication and governance and more importantly, to focus empirical observations on the critical dimensions of a multifaceted phenomenon. The analysis focuses on three key links in this causal chain. The first is the effects of technological innovation on different communication activities. The second link involves the role communication and information play in democratic governance. The final is the social and political mechanisms by which technological innovations are introduced within and transform democratic processes and institutions. We argue that a sharper understanding of these three essential links will enable the growing numbers of researchers interested in electronic democracy to employ the massive social experiment the Internet represents to clarify and further democratic theory itself.

How the Internet weakens Democracy in Western Societies

The internet has been seen as an accelerator for lots of trends since its beginning. One has been the spreading of information, education and democracy. While many scholars focus on how the internet can help developing countries to become (more) democratic, this essay will focus on developed countries already having a (somewhat) democratic system and the impact of the internet on their democracy. Remarkably, the worldwide voting participation has decreased significantly since the 1980s (IDEA, 2014). The majority of the world’s countries is (currently) not governed by a clear democracy, but all relevant democracies shadow this trend. Bearing in mind that the internet started to spread exponentially during the 1990s, the statement that the internet strengthens democracy in regard to active participation seems to be wrong. Whatever the reasons for the loss of participation might be, the internet apparently has not been able to reverse this trend so far. This essay will focus on the general trends of democracy in western governments, societies and enterprises first. It will discuss the correlation between decreasing voting turnout and the raise of the internet and present movements of innovative democracy. In the second part, this article will analyse on a more individualistic level where the way the internet is working may cause problems related to democratic thinking. Subsequently, in the conclusion, some predictions for the foreseeable future will be provided.

Surveying the Internet: Democratic Theory and Civic Life in Cyberspace

Southeastern Political Review, 1996

The Internet, with its rapidly growing worldwide community of users, provides the means to develop anew public space thatfacilitates democratic participation in politics adqted to advanced post-industrial societies. We describe models of electronic democracy that derive from the power of the Internet to enhance citizens' participation in politics. We then explain how we developed and administered asurvey to collect data on how people use the Internet to participate in civic life. After reviewing the strengths and weaknesses of our data collection, we analyze and report the results. Finally, we evaluate our results with regard to the validity of the models of democracy with which we began, andwe commenton some of theirbroader substantive and methodological implications for democratic theoly.

The (Broken?) Promise of Digital Democracy: An Early Assessment

International journal of technology, knowledge and society, 2011

The empirical data are just beginning to emerge about how the internet is being actually utilized for political means. With the answers to some of the descriptive questions becoming available, it is now also possible to begin addressing its normative impact. The question now is whether the internet's use as a new medium for political discourse actually measures up to the hopes of those who argue that it has the potential to improve political discourse and democratic politics. In other words, although the internet certainly makes better politics possible, is it actually being used in a way that meets the normative expectations currently being placed on it? To answer this question, it is necessary to have some normative standard to appeal to. In this case, Habermas' concept of discourse ethics and his contribution to the theories of deliberative democrac y will be the most fruitful foundation from which to build. After clarifying how Habermas' concepts can provide a standard for evaluation, and considering some of the recent empirical literature, I conclude that based on the current evidence, much of the political discourse on the internet is not consistent with Habermas' notion of ideal speech. Because of this, the idea that the internet is providing a qualitatively better form of political discourse is difficult to sustain.