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Electronic Democracy The World of Political Science— The development of the discipline Book series edited by Michael Stein and John Trent Professors Michael B. Stein and John E. Trent are the co-editors of the book series “The World of Political Science”. The former is visiting professor of Political Science, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada and Emeritus Professor, McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The latter is a Fellow in the Center of Governance of the University of Ottawa, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and a former professor in its Department of Political Science. Norbert Kersting (ed.) Electronic Democracy Barbara Budrich Publishers Opladen • Berlin • Toronto 2012 An electronic version of this book is freely available, thanks to the support of libraries working with Knowledge Unlatched. KU is a collaborative initiative designed to make high quality books Open Access for the public good. The Open Access ISBN for this book is 978-3-86649-546-3. More information about the initiative and links to the Open Access version can be found at www.knowledgeunlatched.org © 2012 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0. (CC- BY-SA 4.0) It permits use, duplication, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you share under the same license, give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ © 2012 Dieses Werk ist beim Verlag Barbara Budrich GmbH erschienen und steht unter der Creative Commons Lizenz Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Diese Lizenz erlaubt die Verbreitung, Speicherung, Vervielfältigung und Bearbeitung bei Verwendung der gleichen CC-BY-SA 4.0-Lizenz und unter Angabe der UrheberInnen, Rechte, Änderungen und verwendeten Lizenz. This book is available as a free download from www.barbara-budrich.net (https://doi.org/10.3224/84740018). A paperback version is available at a charge. The page numbers of the open access edition correspond with the paperback edition. ISBN 978-3-8474-0018-9 (paperback) eISBN 978-3-86649-546-3 (ebook) DOI 10.3224/84740018 Verlag Barbara Budrich GmbH Stauffenbergstr. 7. D-51379 Leverkusen Opladen, Germany 86 Delma Drive. Toronto, ON M8W 4P6 Canada www.barbara-budrich.net A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from Die Deutsche Bibliothek (The German Library) (http://dnb.d-nb.de) Jacket illustration by disegno, Wuppertal, Germany – www.disenjo.de Typesetting by Susanne Albrecht-Rosenkranz, Leverkusen, Germany Printed in Europe on acid-free paper by paper&tinta, Warsaw Contents Foreword ............................................................................................... 7 Preface .................................................................................................. 9 1. The Future of Electronic democracy .............................................. 11 Norbert Kersting 2. Political mobilization and social networks. The example of the Arab spring ..................................................... 55 Pippa Norris 3. Social media ................................................................................... 77 Jason Abbott 4. Electronic political campaigning .................................................... 103 Andrea Römmele 5. Open government and open data .................................................... 125 Stephanie Wojcik 6. Electronic voting ............................................................................ 153 Thad Hall 7. Voting Advice Applications ........................................................... 177 Andreas Ladner and Jan Fivaz Index ..................................................................................................... 199 Notes on the Contributors ..................................................................... 201 Foreword This is the eleventh volume in “The World of Political Science” book series sponsored by Research Committee 33 on the Study of Political Science as a Discipline”, one of about 50 Research Committees of the International Politi- cal Science Association (IPSA). Each volume of the series has been prepared by leading international scholars representing one of the research committees of IPSA. This volume is one of the four final volumes in this book series, all published in July, 2012, just prior to the Madrid IPSA triennial World Con- gress. The series consists of 12 volumes in all, published between 2004 and 2012. “The World of Political Science” series is designed to fulfill several dif- ferent objectives. First, it is international in scope, and includes contributors from all major global geographic regions. Second, each volume provides an up-to-date overview of a specific sub-discipline of political science. Third, al- though prepared by leading academic specialists, its volumes are written in a manner accessible both to students of that field and those who wish to learn more about it. Fourth, the books are meant to offer both a state-of-the-art overview of the sub-fields and an explanation of how they have evolved into what they are today. Thus they serve as part of a broader objective of evaluat- ing the current state of development of political science. Fifth, on the basis of their evaluations, the volume editors and authors have made proposals for the future progress and improvement of each sub-field, and also for the discipline as a whole. This eleventh volume in the series was authored primarily by members of IPSA RC 10 (Electronic Democracy). It is a book that is both very current and futuristic in its relevance for the systematic study of politics. It summa- rizes and evaluates the comparative impact of the Internet and social media on evolving global political democratic trends. Its editor, Norbert Kersting, offers as its principal argument that “the development and proliferation of the Internet has inspired not only techno-utopians, but also activists, academics, and political philosophers in recent political debates.” It explores general electronic trends and developments in the social and political spheres, and considers whether and how the main challenges to democracy in this new 8 Foreword millennium may be related to these new information and communication technologies. It also evaluates whether the problems associated with these new developments can be attributed to the electronic technologies, and whether they can also be solved by them. The book encompasses several major themes in the current debate about electronic media, including the role played by social networks in political mobilization during the Arab Spring of 2011-2012 (Norris); the range of so- cial networks and participatory, user-generated webs (Abbott); the impact of electronic campaigning on political elections, civil society protests such as the Occupy Movement in the US and globally in 2011; political party com- munication with the public and campaigning (Roemmele); techniques of face-to-face participation and open government (Wojcik); electronic voting (Hall); and so-called Voting Advice Applications or VAAs (Ladner/Fivaz). The editor concludes that “although hardly predictable”, electronic democ- racy has already produced 1) enhanced political transparency, 2) greater use of Internet voting; 3) increasingly blended online and offline political partici- pation; 4) a more hybrid form of democratic participation involving direct, dialogical and representative democratic forms; 5) a more open and transpar- ent form of e-innovation; and 6) an amalgamation of new and different in- formation and communication functions. A special thanks is owed to Barbara Budrich and her staff for their will- ingness to produce this volume in an amazingly short period of time, without sacrificing its publishing quality. We also acknowledge our debt once again to the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) for its initial Development Initiatives Grant (#820-1999-1022) and subse- quent extensions; to members of the IPSA Executive Committee, its Secre- tariat and Committee on Research and Training; and to the members of IPSA RC 33 for their continued encouragement and support. As series co-editors, we assume ultimate responsibility for this book se- ries and its objectives. This joint and equal collaborative effort has given us immense satisfaction and a strong sense of academic and personal reward. We are proud and also somewhat sad to finally bring the series to a conclu- sion at this time (July 2012). Michael Stein (Visiting Professor, University of Toronto and Emeritus Pro- fessor, McMaster University) John Trent (Fellow, Centre on Governance and former professor, University of Ottawa) Preface The rapid spread of the Internet since the 1990s has led to high expectations for democracy and public administration. Democratic participation can be enhanced by electronic channels for information processing, communication and transaction. Through electronic devices these features are also becoming increasingly integrated. From the PC in the parlour, for example, the citizen may get information about local and international politics, discuss political matters with fellow citizens or with council members, and, when his/her mind is made up, (perhaps) cast a vote for the party or candidate of his/her choice. E-democracy and e-government includes all forms of
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