Part of the trouble inherent in writing a paper on the Internet and its effects on politics is brought about by the fact that the Internet is still a relatively new and continuously developing phenomenon, making any overarching attempt to definitively characterize the Internet and its effects on politics appear somewhat premature. Simply put, the Internet is developing at an astonishing rate- so what may hold true at one moment in time, may prove to be false- rather quickly.
In spite of this, there is value in the history and conceptual frameworks books can provide, to make understanding phenomena useful.
Internet Politics: States, Citizens, and New Communication Technologies and
The Routledge Handbook of Internet Politics are two such books. The first is written by Andrew Chadwick and provides an excellent introduction to the whole notion of the Internet and its effects on politics; the second, edited by Andrew Chadwick and Phillip N. Howard is a collection of essays, which effectively sum up the current state of the field as well as go into much more detail than the earlier book. It is my belief that reading the first book first, will acquaint oneself to the background and themes necessary for understanding Internet politics, and reading the latter book after will provide specific case studies for in depth-analysis.
Internet Politics: States, Citizens, and New Communication Technologies , written by Andrew Chadwick of Royal Holloway College, University of London, is required reading for anyone wishing to understand the relationship between the Internet and politics- specifically, democratic institutional design. The book is unlike many of the other books out there, which seek to explain Internet politics, in that Chadwick's excellent volume is extremely thorough, yet easy to understand. One would think that a field as related to technology as the Internet would prove to be filled with unintelligible technical jargon- but that is not the case here.
Structurally speaking, Chadwick's book is divided into three major sections: contexts, institutions, and issues and controversies. All of these categories are explicated and organized in a clear and logical manner- making for a straightforward and easy to understand reading.
Chadwick begins, in his introduction by explaining why the Internet and politics is a field for close study. His reason is that the Internet has become a mainstay of life within the developed world- further, political actors have become increasingly more involved with the Internet and its communication technologies, some which were not around when the Internet was first created. Additionally, Chadwick convincingly argues that the Internet is now more politicized than it has ever been- and this politicization, a struggle for control, taken with the increasing use of the internet for political ends, will necessarily determine the Internet's future development. The logical consequence of this is that, the Internet- a technology having such a drastic influence on our lives, is being increasingly politicized and subject to control by various political actors. This necessitates further inquiry.
Having established the reason for his inquiry, Chadwick provides a preliminary answer to the question: "What is the Internet?" He provides two answers- one technical, the other comparative. Technically speaking, the internet is "a collection of entities, a relatively decentralized network of networks," which joins together computers from all over the world. This explanation, however, does not adequately suffice for the student of politics. Chadwick's comparative explanation of the internet proves to be much more useful in understanding the role of the Internet in politics.
A comparative answer compares the Internet to traditional types of communicative media. Traditional media is characterized as “one to many,” as exemplified by radio, television, or newspapers; or “one to one,” as demonstrated by telephones and telegrams. The Internet incorporates both types of communicative media, while adding a means by which individuals can collaborate together to work on a project directed towards other entities. That is, the Internet allows many individuals to send information to many other individuals, take for instance, peer-to-peer networks, and for many individuals to send a message to a single group- online opinion, for instance.
This understanding of how the Internet works was perhaps the most useful for me-as I was writing my paper. The differences really highlight some of the major problems that authorities must deal with, in policing the Internet.
The first part of the book, which is devoted to contexts within which one can understand the book was the most helpful for me.
The second part of his book- dedicated to political institutions may prove useful for those who are seeking to explore the issues of "E-democracy;E-mobilization;E-campaigning; and E-government" and are primarily concerned with an understanding of the Internet's affect on Institutions.
The last part of the book, which deals with issues and controversies, I also found to be particularly helpful-- especially the chapter regarding intellectual property issues. If any of the other chapters prove to be as well written as that, then the book is clear, valuable and easy to understand.
In sum, Internet Politics: States, Citizens, and New Communication Technologies is an excellent, well written, academic book, recommended for anyone who wants to familiarize themselves with the politics of the Internet.
The second book, The Routledge Handbook of Internet Politics is edited by Andrew Chadwick and Phillip N. Howard and makes a great deal more sense if you have a basic understanding of how the Internet operates and its political implications.
The book explores a number of issues related to "Institutions; Behavior; Identity; and Law and Policy" including but not limited to the effect of the Internet on the 2004 US presidential election; the effect of the Internet on European political organization; Intellectual property policy problems; internet surveillance; as well as the formulation of political identity.
It is a great academic book, insofar as you have a basic understanding of the politics of the Internet beforehand. The book provides extremely case-specific examinations of numerous phenomena that have not necessarily been examined before. I highly recommend this book as enrichment material-- something to read if you are looking for more than an introductory glance provided by the book I already mentioned. It also should prove itself rather useful to students of political science who are looking for places to conduct research in new and emerging fields.
In sum, both Internet Politics: States, Citizens, and New Communication Technologies and The Routledge Handbook of Internet Politics were extremely helpful to me, as I wrote my paper on the New Politics of the Internet and the Pirate Party. I was actually pretty surprised to find out there was a wide, useful body of literature which I could use to conduct my research. I certainly could not have written this paper without these two books.
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