Page 264 - Comparing Political Communication Theories, Cases, and Challenge

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Thomas Zittel

on the Internet while at least some of their Swedish and German col-
leagues are experimenting with these opportunities.

ELECTRONIC DEMOCRACY – AN AMERICAN MODEL
OF DEMOCRACY WITH RESERVATIONS
The preceding comparative analysis of the use of personal Web sites in
the U.S. House of Representatives, the Swedish Riksdag, and the German
Bundestag supports the hypothesis that electronic democracy is a secu-
lar American phenomenon. However, it also stresses the fact that many
Swedish and German MPs do take advantage of the Internet. Some
of them even use the Internet in quite far-reaching ways. Our analysis
furthermore demonstrates that many U.S. representatives choose to use
the Internet in suboptimal ways. This evidence contradicts the notion of
any type of deterministic relationship between technology, institutional
context, and political change. It stresses the need to study developments
in electronic democracy from the perspective of social actors in order
to understand the mechanisms that link macrovariables with individ-
ual choices and to explain the promises and limits of new opportunity
structures in telecommunications.
Aset of semistandardized interviews with staffers and MPs in these
three parliaments reveals particular institutional features that are per-
ceived as constraining choices regarding the use of computer networks.
Many of the Swedish and German MPs we interviewed voiced outright
opposition to the idea of using Web sites to enhance their communi-
cation with constituents. These members first and foremost emphasize
their general role as a representative of their party who has to implement
thepartyplatform.ASwedishMPdeniesoutrightlyanyindependentrole
on his part or the relevance of demands put forward by his constituency:

Isee myself in an organization, I am in a party. And the party made
aprogram [which tells me] what I am supposed to speak [about]
and what I am supposed to propose. So, that is my [ ... ] guidance
to whatIhavetodecide.
Asaconsequence of this general orientation, other party elites and party
officials are perceived as natural points of reference in retrieving infor-
mation and in discussing policy issues. When asked whom they contact
to learn about policy concerns back home in the district, Swedish MPs
in particular refer to local party officials and other local organizational
elites rather than to constituents in general. Traditional mass media

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