Politics And Government In The Age Of The Internet

Politics and government in the age of the internet Let’s start with some statistics and comparisons. Think back to October 1994 when the Labour Party put its conference proceedings on the web, leading the party to claim it was the first UK political party with an internet presence. Now, ten years on, the online political landscape has changed dramatically. In 2005 it is inconceivable that a political party would not have an internet site; in fact, one of Britain’s newest political parties (the People’s Alliance) actually launched itself online (Happold, 2003). Similarly, MPs with web sites were a rarity ten years ago, so much so that no official statistics exist. Even in 2000, Ward reported that only around 16 per cent of MPs were on the net (Ward, 2000). Today, the results are vastly different. Epolitix.com hosts web sites for MPs and also links to those who choose to host their site elsewhere; currently around 63 per cent (416 out of 659) of Westminster MPs have a personal web site. The party breakdown is also interesting: . 97 out of 163 (59.5 per cent) Conservative MPs have a web site; . 258 out of 407 (63 per cent) Labour MPs; . 48 out of 55 (87 per cent) Liberal Democrat MPs; . four out of four (100 per cent) Plaid Cymru MPs; . three out of five (60 per cent) SNP MPs; and . both independent MPs (Dr Richard Taylor and George Galloway) are on the web. (Figures calculated by the editor based on party strengths on December 11, 2004 and according to Epolitix web site on that day.) Continuing in this vein, Tony Blair was the first Prime Minister to receive a petition by e-mail. He also appointed the UK’s first E-envoy in the E-government Unit at the Cabinet Office, charged with improving the delivery of public services by joining up electronic government services. Local councils now have e-targets and all council services (where appropriate) are expected to be online by the end of 2005, thus making £1.2 billion of efficiency savings for the Government (Arnott, 2005). Citizens can now log on to their local authority and submit planning applications, check their benefit entitlement and apply for school places. Oxford University has a professor of e-democracy and even political consultations are held online (for example, the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee Inquiry into hate crimes gathered evidence at www. tellparliament.net/hatecrime/). These trends in e-politics and e-government are not confined to the UK alone. In 2003, 50, 000 French expatriates in the US were able to vote over the internet for members of the Conseil Superieur des Franc¸ais de l’Etranger (CSFE; Upper Council for French Expatriots). In fact, commentators in the States have even attributed an election win to use of the internet by a candidate: Jessie Ventura’s gubernatorial run in Minnesota in 1998 when a third party candidate with a low budget won a presumed two-horse race with a huge swing. In June 2000 Bill Clinton became the first