Digital Democracy: Discourse and Decision Making in the Information Age [Paperback]

Barry N. Hague (Editor), Brian D Loader (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0415197384 | ISBN-13: 978-0415197380 | Publication Date: August 5, 1999 | Edition: 1

Digital Democracy considers how technological developments might combine with underlying social, economic and political conditions to produce new vehicles for democratic practice.
The growth of new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) such as the Internet, alongside growing concerns about the failure of advanced societies to live up to the democratic idea, has produced much interest in the prospects for a digital democracy.
This book will provide invaluable reading for those studying social policy, politics and sociology as well as for policy analysts, social scientists and computer scientists.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The collection should be of interest to academics, policymakers, and the NGO groups (environmental, health, and women's) interested in exploring the many facets of electronic democracy. . . its lists of extensive on-line resources, allows it to serve well as a supplementary text for diverse courses on the social and policy implication of ICTs. --Leslie Regan Shade, Univ. of Ottawa for Canadian Journal of Communication, Vol. 24, 1999.

About the Author

Barry Hague is Research Coordinator of the Community Informatics Research and Applications Unit (CIRA) at the University of Teesside. Brian Loader is Co-Director of CIRA and editor of The Governance of Cyberspace (Routledge, 1997), Cyberspace Divide (Routledge, 1998), and the journal Information, Communication and Society.

Product Details

• Paperback: 296 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (August 5, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415197384
• ISBN-13: 978-0415197380
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,238,634 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Internet seems to enable more involvement, May 12, 2004

By 

W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Digital Democracy (Library Binding)

This year, 2004, gives an interesting take on the book, if you consider the unfolding US Presidential campaign, and the previous 2000 campaign. As Americans increasingly get wired up, the major parties are increasingly using the Internet to build up and expand their base. Plus, it enables challengers like Howard Dean to aggressively solicit supporters.

All these give an affirmative to the broad thrust of the book's speculations. It does indeed appear that the Internet/Web is an enabling of far broader grassroots participation in democracy.

When the book discusses the live broadcasting of the British Parliament on TV, it turns out such events have had lesser impact on people. Partly because, like the radio broadcasts which British and Australian Parliaments have had for years, these attract only a small audience of diehards.

In part, this might be due to those being broadcast media. Whereas, with the interactive nature of the Internet, with things like email, to some people this may be far more attractive.