Page 251 - Information and American Democracy Technology in the Evolution of Political Power

P2: GCV/IRP
P1: IPH/IRP/IVO
August 14, 2002
19:12
CY101-Bimber
0 521 80067 6
CY101-06
Information, Equality, and Integration
the development of new organizations, which have been more effective
becauseoftheircapacitytousenewinformationtechnologiestofunction
flexibly and interact and coordinate with one another. 7
New German NGOs have less of an ad hoc character than most
of the novel American political groups and practices described in this
book. They behave in many ways more like traditional American interest
groups, and their story has as much in common with the second in-
formation revolution in the United States as with the fourth. According
to Sabine Lang, new German NGOs are contributing to political com-
plexity by multiplying the number of participants in politics, opening
up corporatist political processes to additional voices. At the same time,
technology facilitates new coalitions among local, national, and inter-
national groups. Still, more established, resource-rich NGOs are among
the most effective exploiters of new information technology. The greater
success of established groups in conveying information and mobilizing
citizens through the Internet has to a large degree simply reinforced tra-
ditional patterns of power.
Among German parties, use of new information technology has
produced substantially less organizational change, but has nonetheless
produced some intriguing developments. All major parties in Germany
operate virtual offices as a means for communicating with citizens, and
many of these systems have become very successful in attracting citizen
involvement. According to Christoph Bieber, some of these new com-
munication systems have engaged so many citizens that party officials
and politicians have had little choice but to respond by participating
in Internet-based forums and discussions with their “virtual” party
8
members. The surge of interest in Internet interaction by parties in
Germany comes at a time when traditional party membership has
been declining, and when many believe that parties have stagnated as
organizations. It would be premature, to say the very least, to predict
that information technology will revitalize or reorient German parties,
as it has organizations in the United States like Environmental Defense.
But the new information environment is indeed offering new modes
of affiliation and interaction, and it hints at prospects for altering
organizational structures.

7
Sabine Lang, “NGOs, Local Governance, and Political Communication Processes in
Germany,” Political Communication 17, no. 4 (2000): 383–387.
8
Christoph Bieber, “Revitalizing the Party System or Zeitgeist on-line? Virtual Party
Headquarters and Virtual Party Branches in Germany,” in Peter Ferdinand, ed., The
Internet, Democracy, and Democratization (London: Frank Cass, 2000), pp. 59–75.
234