Page 254 - Comparing Political Communication Theories, Cases, and Challenge

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Thomas Zittel

does not provide a clear and coherent model of the phenomenon at
stake and it gives little conceptual guidance to empirical comparative re-
2
search. For this very reason we have to specify the phenomenon we deal
with. The following sketched out model of electronic democracy argues
that normative theories of democracy highlight three crucial dimensions
of democracy that define coherent models of electronic democracy and
that embrace many empirical observations related to this concept at the
same time.
Electronic democracy is a segmented concept in the social sciences.
During the past decades it has drawn the attention of many different
subfields in the discipline, each of which associates different theoret-
ical frameworks and empirical phenomena with the term. Normative
theorists of democracy have been among the first to take up new devel-
opments in media technology and to consider its relevance for social and
political structures. From the perspective of these scholars, new digital
media such as telephone or computer networks could serve as tools for
more participatory forms of democracy. Figure 10.1 demonstrates that
these normative analyses refer to three essential theoretical dimensions
of democracy to define the notion of participatory democracy in more
specific ways: the jurisdictional dimension, the decisional dimension,
and the representational dimension.
The jurisdictional dimension is based upon the question of whether
decisions should be taken collectively or whether they should be taken
by autonomous social actors. It stresses a normative model of social in-
tegration that argues that the stability of democracy is dependent upon
the existence of social associations and communities performing crucial
political functions such as political integration and regulation (Putnam
2000). Theorists of electronic democracy have argued that new digital
media possess the capability to strengthen social associations and civic
engagement (Etzioni et. al. 1975; Laudon 1977). Some have even argued
that the Internet could provide a space for new types of virtual com-
munities (Rheingold 1993). There has been no explicit debate on the
constitutional ramifications of virtual communities and shifting juris-
dictions in networked societies so far.

2 There are only a few attempts in the literature on electronic democracy to discuss
and clarify the concept (Hagen 1997; Bellamy 2000). These considerations have made
important contributions to its understanding. However, they aim at real types of
electronic democracy that are still closer to the empirical observations than they are to
general and coherent models of electronic democracy. From our point of view, ideal
models are better suited to guide systematic comparative research.

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