Making a Difference

Richard Davis is professor of political science at Brigham Young University.Diana Owen is associate professor of political science and director of American studies at Georgetown University.David Taras is professor of political science at the University of Calgary.Stephen Ward is a senior lecturer in politics at the European Studies Research Institute, University of Salford, England.

There are two ways to explain the impact of the Internet on democratic process. One describes the Internet's role in specific situations. The second attempts to define the concepts that help us better understand this role. These collected studies do bothand do them very well. The volume allows the reader to visualize how and where the integration of the Internet into campaigns and elections has succeeded or failed and, even more importantly, to begin to comprehend why. The breadth of cases is valuable and expansive, representing countries and regions that have not often been studied. Each country case delves deeply into the respective campaign and election systems, providing an engaging and ultimately powerful snapshot of the contemporary state of the impact of technological diffusion on democratic process..

• Chapter 1 PrefaceChapter 2 IntroductionChapter 3 1 Chile: Promoting the Personal Connection—The Internet and Presidential Election CampaignsChapter 4 2 Australia: Potential Unfulfilled? The 2004 Election OnlineChapter 6 3 Singapore: Elections and Internet—Online Activism and Offlince QuiescenceChapter 7 4 Indonesia: Electoral Politics and the InternetChapter 8 5 United States: Internet and ElectionsChapter 9 6 CanadaChapter 10 7 United KingdomChapter 11 8 SpainChapter 12 9 BelgiumChapter 13 10 NetherlandsChapter 14 11 ItalyChapter 15 12 GermanyChapter 16 ConclusionChapter 17 BibliographyChapter 18 Contributors