Participation

Participation Con

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Introduction

The Internet is being heralded as a miracle for flagging political participation, the Internet is generally a mixed bag when it co me s to increasing political participation. It cannot be definitively stated that the Internet actually has a positive effect on political participation; in fact, it could even be determined that the Internet has a negative impact on participation. There are a number of issues involving political participation on the Internet, including the extent to which it increases actual political activity in terms of voting and activism, and most evidence points to no significant increases in these behaviors even as Internet usage is increasing across the board.

Changing Voter Apathy?

Most Internet users’ political activities are relegated to monitoring political events and other forms of passive participation which have always been done through tradition forms of media exposure. These same people are generally already politically involved and generally already participating to their utmost extent in the first place. Having the ability to email your senator or cast a ballot on the Internet doesn’t me an that you will necessarily use it, especially if you are not already inclined to. In other words, having the resource to participate doesn’t me an that behavior will actually change. The Internet is only informing those persons with the predisposition to vote or participate in the first place. As Mel, an art teacher from Ontario , Canada , said, “I use the Internet all the time to talk about any number of topics, including politics. But I don’t think I’m more likely to go vote than I was before, and my voting behavior definitely hasn’t changed at all since starting a political BBS [bulletin board/ message board].” Non-voters will most likely stay non-voters.

Seeing What You Want To See

Users are also tapping into the Internet to inform themselves within their political niche, which has the potential to actually balkanize the political market and decrease participation through ignorance of issues outside of the niche being explored. While the Internet provides a nearly unlimited outlet and information gathering source, it is far too big to be able to see everything, as so it is the natural instinct of a user to whittle down what they see—and this is more likely to be what they want to see than not. This encourages people to participate only on issues which fit in their niches and that they are interested in, which depending on the person, may be of limited scope. By relegating one’s exposure and participation to only a limited number of issues, a person’s participation is not necessarily increased through the use of the Internet.

The Problem with Internet Voting

Voting is considered by many to be one of the main forms of political participation, and the use of the Internet has not created significant increases in voter turnouts. Voter turnouts have remained static or have continued to decline, in spite of the fact that more information on political parties, election events and key issues has increased on the Internet. It can not be shown that using the Internet in order to inform yourself on the election has increased one’s desire to head to a polling station and pull the lever. Christine, from Melbourne , Australia , reads about politics on the Internet and discusses issues in the news with friends and in chat rooms, but does not vote, “I might be more informed but I still don’t have any greater desire to vote.”

In areas where the Internet was used as a means of actually casting a ballot, the numbers telling you that the turnout has increased can be deceiving. In the case of the Arizona Democratic Presidential Primary in 2000, where voters could cast ballots over a four day period from their ho me computers, voter turnout was reported to have increased dramatically over the 1996 primary. What is casually left out is the fact that Clinton ran unopposed in the 1996 primary, providing a disincentive for voters to head to the polls, whereas the 2000 primary was actually being contested and provide voters good reason to want to weigh in. The overall turnout was still less than ten percent of registered Democrats in the state, and half the ballots cast in the election were still done using conventional me ans on one day only or mail in ballot, despite the massive public relations blitz and the “easy” and extended access to the electronic ballot. In the end, electronic turnout was a me re three percent of voters eligible for the primary.

In addition, groups such as the Voting Integrity Project state that due to the predominantly white access to the Internet, most increases in turnout are among white and are widening the participation gap between whites and minorities. They do not considers this to be participation increases since it is only in one group. They also argue that the lack of full security and bugs in online voting systems will lead to a lack of confidence in the Internet as a system of participation and will eventually cause lower turnouts rather than higher, by making the option of not voting more tempting for groups already disposed to low participation levels.

Links

http://vilimpoc.org/research/policy/The%20Net%20Effect%20on%20Popular%20Participation%20in%20Government.pdf

A paper from an OSU student which deals with the Internet and how the ability to use the Internet to increase political knowledge and activity does not imply an actual increase.

http://www.zip.com.au/~athornto/thesis5.htm

A thesis on the Internet and democracy.

http://pro.harvard.edu/papers/049/049001TolbertCar.pdf

Another thesis, this one by a Kent State student, on the subject of the Internet and political participation.

http://www.voting-integrity.org

Voting Integrity Project website

http://www.tecsoc.org/govpol/focusnetvote.htm

Web page focuses on the issue of Internet voting, presenting the arguments for and against and providing a list of links to sites on the issue .

http://www.esri.salford.ac.uk/ESRCResearchproject/output.html

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/forum/february96/bonchek_2-26.html

http://www.cisp.org/imp/may_2000/05_00cornfield-insight.htm