Untitled - socium.ge

The Internet and the political process 365of political actors is broadened, new avenues of collective mobilization mayappear, and a different format of debate may take place, transforming the politicalscene that had been framed by the one-way communication systems of themass media era. This is the hypothesis that we will try to explore in this chapter,grounded on observation of political trends and on available literature onthe topic.In view of the analytical purpose of our study, we will be focusing only onthe United States and on the United Kingdom (the societies in which moststudies on the matter are available) in the hope that our approach can beusefully applied to other contexts. As an additional caveat, we do not implythat all politics can be reduced to formal politics. For us, politics includes allsocial processes that relate to the exercise of power relationships in society,regardless of their institutional and organizational context. Formal politicsrefers to the processes of representation, deliberation, and decision-making inthe constitutionally designated institutions of political authority. We also focuson the process of accessing institutions of governance (leaving aside issues ofso-called e-government); that is, the management of public administration andthe practice of government under the networked paradigm. Our concern in thischapter is to investigate the emerging interaction between people and democracyin the process of political representation in the new form of networkedpublic space constituted by the Internet.THE USES OF THE INTERNET IN THE POLITICALPROCESSWell into the twenty-first century, the Internet is no longer an exotic politicalmedium. The first thing most political candidates do upon declaring theircandidacy is to set up a website. Parliaments and government agencies aroundthe world are gradually moving their activities online. However, despite thisexpansion of online political communication, there has been little real changein the structure and conduct of formal politics. Expectations of increaseddeliberation and interaction between citizens and politicians have not beenmet, as the Internet has been used largely to facilitate a one-way flow of informationfrom politicians to the public (Norris, 2002; The Economist, 2003;Johnson, 2003; Levine, 2003; Pew Internet and American Life Project, 2003;Ward et al., 2003).Like the traditional media, the Internet is most valued by politicians as atool for disseminating information to the media and the public at large,although it is also uniquely effective in mobilizing voters and enhancing interaction.Even so, Internet users are often unable to find the kind of politicalinformation they want, such as comparative information, explanation of voting