Page 208 - Information and American Democracy Technology in the Evolution of Political Power

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Summary of the Cases 18:0
Resource and boundary dynamics in the cases suggest two conclu-
sions. The number of “elite” voices in politics is likely to rise, along
with the overall level of competition for citizen attention and engage-
ment. Whether traditionally powerful interests or previously peripheral
groups prevail under these new conditions is likely to be a function of
the structure of political conflict in any particular case.
The dynamics of political membership show some of the most strik-
ing developments in these cases, and they are related to cost and bound-
ary issues as well. For some of the organizations, changes in the nature
of membership are related to increased permeability of organizational
boundaries. Among the five cases, three involve traditional member-
ship organizations: Environmental Defense, the E-Rate groups, and the
Libertarian Party. The case of ED and its sister environmental organi-
zations shows the strongest shift in the direction of postbureaucratic
membership, and this shift is manifestly tied to low-cost communica-
tion and information. The new category of members at ED, as well as
at the World Wildlife Fund and Defenders of Wildlife, is the most sub-
stantial departure in the cases from any element of traditional political
organization. This new form of “member” does not follow the princi-
ples of collective action theory in which “side payments” areneededas
inducements to membership or participation. These “members” do not
consider themselves as such, and indeed many would likely be surprised
to learn that ED considers them part of its organization.
In the case of the E-Rate coalition, use of information technology by
the education and library groups likely permitted the organizations tem-
porarily to reach outside their own memberships to identify citizens with
an interest in education, but, more important, it helped them mobilize
an ad hoc collection of memberships not accustomed to this kind of po-
litical action, certainly not together. 219 The Libertarian Party exhibits the
most dramatic temporary extension in reach. Low-cost, decentralized,
self-organizing communication techniques permitted the leaders of an
organization in the space of a few weeks to mobilize nearly ten times
more citizens than belonged to its own membership.
If a universal postbureaucratic phenomenon appears in the cases, it
is the tendency toward speed, opportunism, and event-driven political
organization. Many of the informants interviewed for this project vol-
unteered the observation that political processes have been accelerated

219
Anonymous staff member, National Education Association, telephone interview by
Eric Patterson for the author, May 30, 2000.
191