The Internet and Democratic Citizenship
Theory, Practice and Policy

This book examines how the Internet can improve public communications and enrich democracy.

Stephen Coleman (Author), Jay G. Blumler (Author)

9780521520782, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 30 March 2009

232 pages, 1 table
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.3 cm, 0.35 kg

'In this authoritative review of current practice and debates in e-democracy Stephen Coleman and Jay Blumer combine a powerful theoretical frame work with a hard-headed analysis of what works and what doesn't. Carefully avoiding technological determinism, they argue convincingly that the 'vulnerable potential' of the internet as a democratic tool will only be fulfilled through the establishment of an independent agency to develop, promote and oversee online deliberation.' Matthew Taylor, Chief Executive, Royal Society for the Encouragement of the Arts

Relations between the public and holders of political authority are in a period of transformative flux. On the one side, new expectations and meanings of citizenship are being entertained and occasionally acted upon. On the other, an inexorable impoverishment of mainstream political communication is taking place. This book argues that the Internet has the potential to improve public communications and enrich democracy, a project that requires imaginative policy-making. This argument is developed through three stages: first exploring the theoretical foundations for renewing democratic citizenship, then examining practical case studies of e-democracy, and finally, reviewing the limitations of recent policies designed to promote e-democracy and setting out a radical, but practical proposal for an online civic commons: a trusted public space where the dispersed energies, self-articulations and aspirations of citizens can be rehearsed, in public, within a process of ongoing feedback to the various levels and centers of governance: local, national and transnational.

1. Democracy's deliberative deficit
2. A crisis of public communication
3. From indirect to direct representation
4. E-democracy from above
5. E-democracy from below
6. Shaping e-democracy.

Subject Areas: Media, information & communication industries [KNT], Comparative politics [JPB], Media studies [JFD]