Book

Democracy's double-edged sword : how Internet use changes citizens' views of their government

Bailard, Catie Snow

Overview

\"As digital media becomes more omnipresent in our lives, it becomes ever more important for political scientists and communication scholars to understand its influence on all aspects of the political process--from campaigning to governance. Catie Snow Bailard seeks to determine the Internet's influence on citizens' evaluations of their governments' performance, particularly whether the Internet influences their satisfaction regarding the quality of democratic practices available in their nation. While it is clearly important to understand how the Internet can streamline political organization once people are moved to action, the discipline has afforded less attention to whether the Internet influences citizens at this more foundational, antecedent stage of political action. Bailard originates two theories for democratization specialists to consider: mirror-holding and window-opening. Mirror-holding explores how accessing the Internet allows citizens to see a more detailed and nuanced view of their own government's performance, dirty laundry and all. Window-opening, on the other hand, enables those same citizens to see how other governments' perform in general, particularly in comparison to their own. The author offers a theory of the impact of Internet use on evaluations of government, as well as tests of that theory at the country and individual levels based on survey data collected in 73 countries and two field experiments conducted in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Tanzania\"-- Provided by publisher.

• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Subject: Political participation Technological innovations. / Decision making Citizen participation Technological innovations. / Public administration Citizen participation Technological innovations. / Public administration Public opinion. / Internet Political aspects. / Digital media Political aspects. / Democracy. / Democratization. / Comparative government. / POLITICAL SCIENCE / General. / POLITICAL SCIENCE / Government / Comparative. / COMPUTERS / Internet / General.
• ISBN: 9781421415253, 1421415259

Item info:

1 item available

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Holdings :

Call Number	Copies	Material	Location
JF799.5.B35 2014	1	BOOK	AUTOSTORE