Page 177 - Information and American Democracy Technology in the Evolution of Political Power

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Political Organizations
it covered most congressional districts around the nation. At the same
time, the phone surcharges lost their novelty as a new “tax,” and the spike
in public awareness of the program faded rapidly.
E-Rate also developed an industrial ally: the producers of informa-
tion technology being used in the schools and libraries. While E-Rate
cost telecommunications firms money, or so they claimed, it meant ad-
ditional sales to hardware and software firms and consulting operations
involved in connecting computers to the telecommunication services
being brought to schools. A number of computer companies eventually
went on record in support of E-Rate. One firm, Corporate Networking,
Inc., reported a 30 percent increase in its annual sales of networking
equipment due chiefly to E-Rate. 124 In 1999, under pressure from sup-
porters, the FCC voted to restore full funding to the program up to
the maximum permitted by law, $2.25 billion. The telecommunications
firms were not interested in another fight, and by its third year, E-Rate
wassafelyinplaceasapublicprogram,actuallyearningpraisefrommany
observers. 125
The story of E-Rate bears similarity to both the Libertarian Party’s
efforts on Know Your Customer and developments in the environmental
lobby. Like the Libertarian case, E-Rate organizers were able to exploit
low-cost communication and information tools to form and mobilize a
public constituency. To some extent the coalition probably reached out-
side its own memberships, which was the key to the Libertarians’ success,
but, more important, it drew together a far-flung set of memberships not
accustomed to working together and often not tightly connected to lob-
bying efforts by the organizations themselves. And in both cases the orga-
nizations’ efforts proceeded very rapidly in response to short-term policy
eventsratherthanlong-termstrategicplans.LikeEnvironmentalDefense
and other environmental lobbies, the E-Rate coalition created a metaor-
ganization connected by information technology in which the structure
of funding and the organization of traditional resources was less impor-
tantthanthecapacitytocoordinateandtorespondflexiblyandquicklyto

Institute for the U.S. Department of Education, Office of the Undersecretary, Doc
00-17, Sept. 18, 2000, http://www.ed.gov/offices/OUS/PES/erate fr.pdf.
124
Gail Repsher, “E-Rate’s Success Silences Critics,” Washington Technology, on-line edi-
tion, Oct. 9, 2000, http://www.wtonline.com/vol15 no14/cover/1851-1.html.
125
For independent commentary on E-Rate, see Brian Staihr and Katharine Sheaff,
“The Success of the ‘E-Rate’ in Rural America,” The Main Street Economist (Center
for the Study of Rural America, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Feb. 2001),
http://www.kc.frb.org; and Carolyn Hirschman, “E-Rate OK for Now,” Telephony,
March 19, 2001, http://www.telecomclick.com.

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