The Internet and Democratic Citizenship: Theory, Practice and Policy (Communication, Society and Politics)

Cover......Page 1
Half-title......Page 3
Series-title......Page 5
Title......Page 7
Copyright......Page 8
Contents......Page 9
Acknowledgements......Page 11
Divergent Anxieties......Page 13
Being Citizens......Page 16
New Political Spaces......Page 20
Our View......Page 21
CHAPTER 1 Democracy's Deliberative Deficit......Page 26
Arguments for Democratic Deliberation......Page 27
Barriers of Distance, Time and Scale......Page 31
Time......Page 32
Scale......Page 33
The Limits of Public Competence......Page 34
The Inevitability of Aggregation and Rational Choice......Page 36
Hegemony and Difference......Page 37
Bringing Deliberation Down to Earth......Page 38
Overcoming Time, Space and Scale......Page 39
Producing Informed Deliberation......Page 40
Consensus Conferences......Page 42
Deliberative Polls......Page 43
Escaping from Social Choice Theory......Page 45
Beyond the Rationalist Straightjacket......Page 48
A More Deliberative Democracy......Page 50
CHAPTER 2 A Crisis of Public Communication......Page 54
The Socio-political Environment......Page 57
Modernisation......Page 58
The Professionalisation of Political Advocacy......Page 59
The Journalistic Reaction......Page 62
An Adversarial Relationship......Page 64
The Media System: Intensified Competition......Page 65
1. Truncated political advocacy......Page 68
2. Heavy presentation of politics as a 'game'......Page 69
4. Personalisation......Page 70
6. Some loss of spontaneity......Page 71
Crisis of Public Communication Revisited......Page 72
An Alternative Perspective......Page 74
Looking Ahead......Page 77
CHAPTER 3 From Indirect to Direct Representation......Page 80
Closeness......Page 81
Coherence......Page 82
Feeling Represented......Page 83
Articulating Disconnection......Page 86
From Indirect to Direct Representation......Page 90
From Distance to Co-Presence......Page 93
From Place to Networks......Page 95
From Transmission to Dialogue......Page 97
From Spectacle to Self-Disclosure......Page 98
Developing Theory - Interrogating Practice......Page 101
CHAPTER 4 E-Democracy from Above......Page 102
Case 1 - Online Parliamentary Consultations......Page 103
Inclusive Consultation or 'The Usual Suspects'?......Page 105
Creating and Connecting Online Networks......Page 107
Interaction with Political Representatives......Page 108
Evidential Quality......Page 111
Some Conclusions......Page 113
Case 2 - The Community Campaign Creator......Page 114
E-Participation as Civic Education?......Page 119
Political Outcomes?......Page 120
The Limitations of E-Democracy from Above......Page 123
CHAPTER 5 E-Democracy from Below......Page 129
Case 1 - BBC ICAN: An Experiment in Mediated E-Democracy......Page 133
Case 2 - Netmums: A Grass-Roots Information Network......Page 139
Case 3 - Stop the War Coalition Online: An E-Supported Protest Movement......Page 144
The Limitations of E-Democracy from Below......Page 146
CHAPTER 6 Shaping E-Democracy......Page 151
The Rhetorical Construction of E-Democracy......Page 153
Responding to History......Page 155
Constructing Citizenship......Page 156
Technologies of Hearing......Page 158
Enacting E-democracy......Page 160
E-Voting......Page 162
Local E-Participation......Page 163
Civic Initiatives......Page 164
Can Policy Stimulate Democratic Participation?......Page 166
Policy and Space......Page 174
Transcending Political Distance......Page 178
A Civic Commons in Cyberspace......Page 181
The Civic Commons 2.0......Page 188
Public Demand......Page 196
Engaging Governments......Page 201
Sustaining the Space of the Demos......Page 207
Bibliography......Page 211
Index......Page 229