Page 258 - Comparing Political Communication Theories, Cases, and Challenge

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Thomas Zittel

This notion of American exceptionalism forms the basis of a long-
standing debate in the social sciences. Alexis de Tocqueville sketched in
his seminal book on democracy in America, published in 1835 and 1840,
the picture of a postfeudal society based upon values such as equality,
individualism, anti-etatism, and populism. This type of social struc-
ture presented a stark contrast to European feudal systems in the early
nineteenth century (Tocqueville 1976). Theorists of American excep-
tionalism argue that these different historical vantage points patterned
the development of democracy over time on both sides of the Atlantic
and account for historical continuities and crucial differences across
cases (Lipset 1990, 1996). Contemporary students of American politics
stress the egalitarian, participatory, and populist character of American
democracy compared to its European counterparts (Huntington 1981),
and according to Kleinsteuber and Hagen, this is the only environment
in which computer networks will be perceived as tools for participatory
democracy and will be used in related ways.
The literature on electronic democracy provides little systematic em-
pirical evidence to support this hypothesis. Most available empirical
research is based upon atheoretical single case studies, which do not
accumulate evidence, and which are thus ill suited to allow for general
conclusions. On the theoretical level, this hypothesis suffers from the
same weaknesses as its counterparts. It is based upon an overdetermin-
istic theory of politics and political change. It also ignores the fact that
political change does after all have to be initiated by autonomous polit-
ical actors and that explanatory theories of electronic democracy have
to focus on the micropolitics of electronic democracy to understand the
potential as well as the limits of computer networks.
The following empirical section aims to produce systematic evidence
regarding American exceptionalism in the networked society. In order
to achieve this goal we will have to narrow our focus. The following
analysis stresses the representational dimension of electronic democ-
racy. We perform a comparative analysis of the use of personal Web sites
in the German Bundestag, the Swedish Riksdag, and the U.S. House of
Representatives. All three countries experienced technological change
in telecommunications and have established a critical mass of Inter-
net users. The selection of the cases furthermore allows us to compare
the United States with two established European democracies and to
learn whether there is a systematic difference between the American
and the European case regarding developments in electronic democracy.
The empirical indicator selected is well suited to determine whether

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