Digital Democracy: Issues of Theory and Practice

by Kenneth L. Hacker (Editor), Jan A G M van Dijk (Editor)

Overview

Increasing attention is being paid to the political uses of the new communication technologies. Digital Democracy offers an invaluable in-depth explanation of what issues of theory and application are most important to the emergence and development of computer-mediated communication systems for political purposes.

The book provides a wide-ranging critical examination of the concept of virtual democracy as discussed in theory and as implemented in practice and policy that has been hitherto unavailable. It addresses how the Internet, World Wide Web and computer-mediated political communication are affecting democracy and focuses on the various theoretical and practical issues involved in digital democracy. Using inter

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761962175
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	08/16/2001
Series:	New Media Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.56(d)

About the Author

Jan A.G.M. van Dijk (1952) is emeritus professor of communication science and sociology of the information society and still working at the University of Twente, the Netherlands.

His main domains of research are the social aspects of the digital media, digital democracy and the digital divide. His best known English books are The Network Society (Four Editions, Sage Publications), Digital Democracy (2000, Sage Publications), The Deepening Divide (2005, Sage Publications), Digital Skills (2014, Palgrave Macmillan), Internet and Democracy (2018, Routledge) and The Digital Divide (2020, Polity Press). Since the year 2020 he is working on an overall work called Power & Technology, combining theories of social and natural power explaining the use of technology in human history. During his long career he was an advisory of many governments and departments as well as the European Commission.

Table of Contents

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION AND HISTORY
What Is Digital Democracy? - Kenneth L Hacker and Jan van Dijk
Computers as Communication - Everett M Rogers and Sheena Malhotra
The Rise of Digital Democracy
PART TWO: THEORY
Models of Democracy and Concepts of Communication - Jan van Dijk
Digital Democracy and Political Systems - Martin Hagan
Structural Transformations of the Public Sphere - John Keane
The Controversies of the Internet and the Revitalization of Local Political Life - Sinikka Sassi
PART THREE: PRACTICE
White House Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) and Political Interactivity - Kenneth L Hacker
Guiding Voters through the Net - Anita Elberse, Matthew Hale and William Dutton
The Democracy Network in a California Primary
The Promise and Practice of Public Debate in Cyberspace - Nicholas Jankowski and Martine van Selm
The Widening Information Gap and Policies of Prevention - Jan van Dijk
Public Policies for Digital Democracy - Michel Catinat and Thierry Vedel
PART FOUR: SUMMARY
Summary - Jan van Dijk and Kenneth L Hacker

Editorial Reviews

‘Hacker and van Dijk present an insightful collection exploring the nature of digital democracy.... This book does much to demystify the overused terminology associated with digital democracy, and manages to aviod the hyperbole and utopian tendencies often evident within existing analysis of "cyberpolitics ".... highly recommended' - Political Theory

From the Publisher