Page 156 - Information and American Democracy Technology in the Evolution of Political Power

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Environmental Advocacy 18:0
organization, and had little skill or expertise in mobilizing citizens – so
much so that one scholar observed in a study published in 1999 that since
its beginning when “EDF had no real social network through which to
build constituency support,” the organization has viewed its supporters
as donors rather than true members. 71
In 1999, officials at EDF undertook a major change in strategy in an
effort to exploit new possibilities for communication and information
management made possible by the Internet. EDF leadership decided to
72
“reorient all strategies to include an Internet component.” It dropped
the word“Fund” fromitsname,andadoptedanewlogo,withalowercase
“e,” which evokes the electronic “e” in e-mail and e-commerce, as well
as the environment. On its web site, the executive director of the new
ED proclaimed, “[W]e want to use the power of the Internet to take
environmental activism to the next level.” 73 ED would continue as a
“scienceandthelaw”group,butwouldnowbecomeagrassrootslobbying
firm using twenty to twenty-five full- and part-time staff.
The functional centerpiece of the new ED was data base–driven web
sites aimed at attracting citizens, collecting information about their en-
vironmental interests, and then mobilizing them through calls for polit-
ical action. The concept behind the change was a traditional one, even
though the consequences would be dramatic and new. ED officials be-
lievedthatawealthofinformationexistedaboutneighborhoodpollution
that could be of political value, if only it could be delivered to the right
citizens. They understood collective action in Tocquevillian terms. Citi-
zens have interests in the environment, they knew, but these tended to be
highly particularistic. The key to mobilizing these citizens was deliver-
ing highly specific information to them about their particular concerns –
not broad, information-poor calls to collective action in order “to protect
the environment,” but narrow, information-rich messages linking local
events and issues with citizens’ individual interests. The Internet, ED
felt, seemed to promise new opportunities for that kind of information-
intensive politics.
The change in strategy came at a time of challenge to ED and many
other environmental organizations. The stagnation in environmental
membership of the mid- to late 1990s had hit ED comparatively hard.
After a period of expansion when membership had grown from about

71 Shaiko, Voices and Echoes for the Environment,p.81.
72
Anonymous official, Environmental Defense, telephone interview by Joe Gardner for
the author, April 18, 2000.
73
“Environmental Defense, Director’s Message,” May 2000, http://www.ed.org.
139