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Parliamentary Affairs Advance Access originally published online on March 9, 2006
Parliamentary Affairs 2006 59(2):210-225; doi:10.1093/pa/gsl014
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© The Author [2006]. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Hansard Society for Parliamentary Government; all rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Introduction: The Potential of the Internet Revisited

Stephen Ward

Stephen Ward is a Research Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford

Thierry Vedel

Thierry Vedel is Professor of Political Communication and a researcher with the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), Centre for Political Research (CEVIPOF) in Paris

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The net is the world’s only functioning political anarchy but it could soon become a major tool for democracy by allowing anyone anywhere access to information and opinions of anyone else, anywhere else. A morsel is being given to mankind with one instruction: ‘Eat Me’, so that we may grow. (Rael A. Fenchurch, Demos Quarterly, 4, 1994, p. 36)

IN the space of little more than a decade the Internet has moved from the preserve of computer geeks and academics to becoming a global media of central concern for political actors and government policy makers and the public. Barely a day goes by without the Internet being declared as a panacea to a host of social and political problems or, alternatively, being held responsible for the promotion of pornography, racism and terrorism.

As with other technological advances in the twentieth century, the arrival of the Internet heralded an initial . . . [Full Text of this Article]


   The growth of the UK Internet
 

   The public, political engagement and the Internet
 

   Representative institutions, organisations and the Internet?
 
CREATING NEW ORGANISATIONAL FORMS?
INTERNAL RESTRUCTURING–REDUCING HIERARCHIES?
ACCELERATING ORGANISATIONAL PLURALISM?

   Lagging behind?
 

   Democracy and the Internet revisited
 

   Conclusions
 

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