Italian Political Parties on the Web

Abstract

To draw some conclusions about the implications of parties' engagement with the new information and communications technologies (ICTs) for the quality of democracy, this article explores the way in which Italian parties are exploiting the World Wide Web for campaigning and related functions. Italy has been chosen because it is a liberal democracy and yet has party-system and other characteristics in terms of which it differs from other democracies that have been used to explore the political implications of use of the new ICTs. Adding an Italian case study to the existing work consequently allows us to move closer to an understanding of the conditions under which the new ICTs will have an impact. Defining the quality of democracy in terms of the degree to which parties and individual citizens are afforded equality of influence in political decision making, this research points in the direction of a muted impact because of a tendency of the parties to use the new medium to carry out existing campaign tasks more efficiently and effectively rather than seek to use it in innovative ways. However, this same tendency may improve the quality of democracy in another sense, namely, by reinvigorating and strengthening the party organizations that are central to the representative process in the first place.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bentivegna, Sara . 1999. La Politica in Rete (Politics on the Net). Rome, Italy: Meltemi.

Gibson, Rachel , Andrew Mycock , and Stephen Ward . 1999. “An Outsider's Medium? The 1999 European Elections and UK Party Competition on the Internet.” Paper presented at the Elections, Public Opinion and Parties conference, Nene University College Northamption, September 19.

Gibson, Rachel , James Newell , and Stephen Ward . 2000. “New Parties, New Media: Italian Party Politics and the Internet.” South European Society and Politics 5(1):123-144.

Gibson, Rachel , and Stephen Ward . 1998. “UK Political Parties and the Internet: Politics as Usual in the New Media?” Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics 3(3):14-38.

Gibson, Rachel K. , and Stephen J. Ward . 2000a. “New Media, Same Impact? British Party Activity in Cyberspace.” In Reinvigorating Government? British Politics and the Internet, ed. Rachel Gibson and Stephen Ward . Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.

Gibson, Rachel , and Stephen Ward . 2000b. “A Proposed Methodology for Studying the Function and Effectiveness of Party and Candidate Web Sites.” Social Science Computer Review 18(3):301-319.

Hoff, Jens , and Karl Lofgren . 1997. “Political Parties and Computer Mediated Communication in Denmark: General Use and Strategy.” Paper presented to European Group of Public Administration Annual Conference, Leuven, Belgium, September 9-13.

Kamark, Elaine Ciulla . 1999. “Campaigning on the Internet in the Off-Year Elections of 1998.” John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, February.

Klotz, Robert . 1997. “Positive Spin: Senate Campaigning on the Web.” PS: Political Science and Politics 30(3):482-486.

10.

Lipow, Aurthur , and Patrick Seyd . 1996. “The Politics of Anti-Partyism.” Parliamentary Affairs 49(2):273-284.

11.

Margolis, Michael , David Resnick , and Tu Chin-chang . 1997. “Campaigning on the Internet: Parties and Candidates on the World Wide Web in the 1996 Primary Season.” Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics 2(1):59-78.

12.

Margolis, Michael , David Resnick , and Joel Wolfe . 1999. “Party Competition on the Internet: Minor Versus Major Parties in the UK and USA.” Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics 4(3):24-47.

13.

Nixon, Paul , and Hans Johansson . 1999. “Transparency Through Technology: The Internet and Political Parties.” In Digital Democracy: Discourse and Democracy in the Information Age, ed. Brian Hague and Brian Loader . London: Routledge.

14.

Norris, Pippa . 2001. “Digital Parties: Civic Engagement and Online Democracy.” Paper presented to the workshop on “Electronic Democracy: Mobilization, Organization and Participation via New ICTs” of the Joint Sessions of Workshops of the European Consortium for Political Research, Grenoble, France, April 6-11.

15.

Rash, Wayne, Jr. 1997. Politics on the Net. New York: W. H. Freeman.

16.

Rodotà, Stefano . 1997. Tecnopolitica: La Democrazia e le Nuove Tecnologie della Communicazione (Technopolitics: Democracy and the New Communications Technologies). Rome, Italy: Laterza.

17.

Roper, Juliet . 1999. “New Zealand Political Parties Online: The World Wide Web as a Tool for Democratization or Political Marketing.” In The Politics of Cyberspace, ed. Chris Toulouse and Tim Luke . London: Routledge.

18.

Selnow, G. W. 1998. Electronic Whistle-Stops: The Impact of the Internet on American Politics. Westport, CT: Praeger.

19.

Smith, Colin . 1997. “Political Parties in the Information Age: From Mass Party to Leadership Organization.” In Handbook of Public Administration for the Information Age, ed. W. Van de Donk and I. Snellen . Amsterdam, the Netherlands: IOS.

20.

Voerman, Gerrit . 1998. “Dutch Political Parties on the Internet.” ECPR News 10(1):8-9.