Introduction

Abstract

This volume provides an important update to our current understanding of politics and the Internet in a variety of new contexts, both geographically and institutionally. The subject of e-democracy has morphed over the years from the speculative and optimistic accounts of Rheingold (1993) and Negroponte (1996) who foresaw a future of heightened direct citizen involvement in political decision making and an increasingly “withered” state apparatus, to more prosaic investigations of party and governmental website content and micro-level analyses of voters’ online activities. These latter studies painted a more muted and “normalized” picture of adaptation. Rather than leveling the communications and participation playing field, most studies concluded that existing patterns of bias and power distribution were being repeated online.