Page 246 - Information and American Democracy Technology in the Evolution of Political Power

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Information, Equality, and Integration
in the Public Sphere

DRAWING CONCLUSIONS: A REVOLUTION IN THE MIDDLE
In what sense is the contemporary information revolution really revolu-
tionary for democracy in the United States? Together the conclusions of
the previous chapters suggest a set of important changes that are concen-
trated between the level of the mass public and institutions of the state
itself–arevolutioninthe middle. The use of technologies associated
with the Internet by political actors is making information and commu-
nication increasingly abundant: inexpensive, decentralized, and widely
distributed. A central feature of this abundance is that information flows
more readily within and between organizations than at any time in the
past. The traditional boundaries, resources, and structures of organiza-
tions have less influence over who has facility with political information
and communication and who does not. In this sense, information itself is
becoming politically less institutionalized. As a result, processes of polit-
ical intermediation, organizing, and mobilizing appear to be changing.
Sometraditionalpoliticalorganizations,suchasEnvironmentalDefense,
the Libertarian Party, and members of the Save the E-Rate Coalition, are
undergoing changes as they adapt to information abundance, while more
flexible, ad hoc organizations, such as the Million Mom March, appear
better able than ever before to have a voice in politics, if not necessarily
to defeat richer organizations outright.
A second feature of information abundance is the reinforcement of
patterns of political engagement and disengagement at the level of po-
litical individuals. Americans in the aggregate are not growing any more
engaged in their political system as a result of new technology. On the
whole, those who pay the most attention to the media of previous infor-
mation revolutions are also paying the most attention to new media, and

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