The Digital Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Information Technology and Political Islam (Oxford Studies in Digital Politics) [Paperback]

Philip N. Howard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 21, 2010 | Series: Oxford Studies in Digital Politics

Around the developing world, political leaders face a dilemma: the very information and communication technologies that boost economic fortunes also undermine power structures. Globally, one in ten internet users is a Muslim living in a populous Muslim community. In these countries, young people are developing political identities online, and digital technologies are helping civil society build systems of political communication independent of the state and beyond easy manipulation by cultural or religious elites.

With unique data on patterns of media ownership and technology use, The Digital Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy demonstrates how, since the mid-1990s, information technologies have had a role in political transformation. Democratic revolutions are not caused by new information technologies. But in the Muslim world, democratization is no longer possible without them.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A long-awaited inquiry into the politics of the Internet...Howard's book is an innovative contribution among the overwhelming amount of writings about the role of the Internet in the Middle East...Howard puts much effort in explaining the multifaceted results, adding tables to summarize important findings. This nuanced approach is a pleasant break from the often-found urge for absolute (utopian or dystopian) claims...The book is highly recommended as required reading for technology experts, graduate students, and longer serving academics alike."--Political Communication

"At a time when everyone is asking whether new media affects politics in the Mid-East, Philip Howard has produced the definitive answer in his book. This is an impressive work of scholarship, both in its quantitative approach to international affairs and in its conclusions, which will be of interest to social scientists and policy makers alike."--Clay Shirky, New York University and author of Cognitive Surplus

"This book presents a most challenging and original analysis of the cultural and political dynamics of the Muslim world through the lens of the interaction between communication technology and politics. It breaks new ground in our understanding of the implications of digital technology for socio-political change. It will become a reference in political communication for the years to come."--Manuel Castells, Wallis Annenberg Chair of Communication Technology and Society, University of Southern California-Los Angeles

"For too long the literature on the politics of the new information technologies has been empirically thin and theoretically overheated. By substituting systematic empirical analysis for anecdote and nuanced interpretation for hyperbole, Howard has written an original and important book that scholars of comparative politics, democratization, contentious politics and the new information technologies will be obliged to read. As he provocatively reminds us (quoting Kranzberg), 'technology is neither good nor bad, nor is it neutral.'"--Doug McAdam, Professor of Sociology and Director of Urban Studies, Stanford University

"In contests between dictatorship and democracy, new media exert increasingly determinative influence. Philip Howard provides a detailed, thoughtful analysis of how the flow of information and tools of communication are reshaping global politics."--Philip Seib, Director of the USC Center on Public Diplomacy

"Philip Howard develops an empirically grounded case for the role that the Internet and related communication technologies are playing in supporting democratic developments within Islamic states. This would be an excellent book for courses on 21st Century politics and the Internet."--William H. Dutton, Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford

"[Howard's] meticulously researched account stands in stark contrast to two rather simplistic narratives that have become extremely popular with pundits and journalists, who like to view the Internet either as a breeding ground for terrorists or as an almighty force that causes revolutions anywhere it goes. EL a well-informed and ambitious study that expounds on the historical relationship between technology diffusion and democratization in Muslim countries in a very nuanced and technologically literate manner." - Perspectives on Politics

"In this timely, erudite, and well-written book, Howard captures the multifaceted dimensions and transformative power of new technologies. Empirically grounded and analytically rich, the reader will find much that is informative and insightful."--CHOICE

About the Author

Philip N. Howard is an associate professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Washington, with adjunct appointments at the Jackson School of International Studies and the Information School. His book New Media Campaigns and the Managed Citizen won the American Sociological Association's Communication and Information Technologies Section Best Book Award and the International Communication Association's Outstanding Book Award.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (September 21, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0199736421
• ISBN-13: 978-0199736423
• Product Dimensions: 0.7 x 5.9 x 8.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #635,186 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Philip N. Howard (BA Toronto, MSc London School of Economics, PhD Northwestern) is a professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Washington. He directs the Digital Activism Research Project, the World Information Access Project (wiaproject.org) and the Project on Information Technology and Political Islam (pitpi.org). These research projects--supported by both the National Science Foundation and Intel's People and Practices Group--investigate patterns of technology diffusion between and within developing countries and the role of new information technologies in political communication systems around the world. His most recent books include Democracy's Fourth Wave? Digital Media and the Arab Spring (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2012), Castells and the Media (London, UK: Polity, 2011) and The Digital Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2010). He is the author of New Media Campaigns and the Managed Citizen (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006), about how digital information technologies are used to manipulate public opinion in the United States. His books have won praise from across the social sciences, with awards from the American Political Science Association, the American Sociological Association, and the International Communication Association. He has edited Society Online: The Internet in Context (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2004, with Steve Jones) and the Handbook of Internet Politics (London: Routledge, 2008, with Andrew Chadwick). He has authored numerous journal articles examining the role of new information and communication technologies in politics and social development, including pieces in the American Behavioral Scientist, the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, and New Media & Society. He has worked on several NSF projects, serving on the advisory board of the Survey2000 and Survey2001 Projects, and co-managing a project about Information and Communication Technologies in Central Asia. He teaches courses on research methods, politics online, and international development. Howard has been a Fellow at the Pew Internet & American Life Project in Washington D.C., the LSE's Stanhope Centre for Communications Policy Research, Stanford University's Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, and is currently a fellow at Princeton University's Center for Information Technology Policy.

His website is philhoward.org

He tweets from @pnhoward

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Thoughtful and thorough critique October 7, 2010

By John W. Gastil

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Howard adds considerable insight to the growing body of work on new media and democracy, shifting our attention toward the most undemocratic regimes, nascent democracies, and young polyarchies that aspire to earn the label "democracy" (a term really better used in theory than as a label for actual governments). Unlike so many authors, Howard avoids over-hyping new information technology and shows that it can be used ably by both those who would reform and those who would repress, though he can't help but notice that it has been used more often--and to greater effect--by the former. Again filling a gap in the literature, he focuses particularly on countries with large Muslim populations, and his analysis suggests that freedom of expression is a value and an impulse that exists across all cultures. He finds new media to be a tool of choice both for dissenters within repressive countries but also for diaspora communities and "governments in exile." (Note to dictators: Placing someone in exile is mostly just changing the ISP they use. Second note to dictators: Sorry, but many dissidents are now linking through connections outside your country, so, um, good luck with that.) Instead of naively claiming that Twitter will save us all, Howard simply points out that Facebook et al. will be a part of all democratic revolutions from this point forward. Social media, cellphones, and the like are as important as pamphlets in 1776 and posters in East Germany, but they have an unparalleled potential for circulating, organizing, and broadcasting dissent, both within countries and in the wider world.

In sum, it's a must-read for those who want to understand democratization in the digital age and political culture in Muslim countries and the developing world.