Page 245 - Information and American Democracy Technology in the Evolution of Political Power

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may one day become an integral part of the story of how information
technology affected democracy in the early twenty-first century, Internet
voting is best kept conceptually distinct from the parts of that story ex-
amined in this chapter, namely, how a changed information environment
may affect individual-level political engagement.
Where that larger issue is concerned, the following conclusions can
be drawn about changes in political engagement in information revolu-
tions. By creating opportunities for national-scale flows of information,
the first information revolution produced enormous increases in politi-
cal engagement. The second and third revolutions had important effects
on the structure of political engagement and on the nature of political
intermediaries, but exerted no positive effect on levels of engagement;
in fact, they likely contributed to the declines in political engagement,
especiallyinthecaseofvotingduringthesecondhalfofthetwentiethcen-
tury. The fourth information revolution, which is still in its infancy, also
appears to be exerting little influence on participation levels, although a
few intriguing effects are visible that cannot yet be fully explained with
available evidence.

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