1. Phile or Phobe? Australian and British MPs and the New Communication Technology.
- Author
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Gibson, Rachel K., Lusoli, Wainer, and Ward, Stephen
- Subjects
- *
INFORMATION & communication technologies , *LEGISLATORS , *INTERNET , *INFORMATION technology - Abstract
This paper compares the adoption of new information and communication technologies (ICTs) by Australian and UK legislators, with a view toward how this may affect styles of representation and roles of the MPs in the two polities. In particular we provide an overall picture of the scope of current activity in each country in terms of website adoption, and whether this is accelerating over time. In addition we profile the basic functions that legislators are using their websites for and what differences, if any, emerge in approach across the two systems. Finally, we examine factors at the individual, organisational and systemic level that might help explain the variance in rates and levels of uptake of the new technology. In addressing these issues we build on the extant literature that has examined the individual and organisational factors that have influenced candidates and parties adoption of ICTs in the UK and Australia as well as a range of other countries. In addition, the paper comparatively extends to Australia our recent benchmarking work on British MPs’ use of the Internet, which helps illuminate the macro and institutional-level factors influencing the diffusion of ICTs among elected representatives. We are thus able to examine larger questions about the extent to which national traits are determinative of political and particularly representational uses of the Web, over and above micro- and meso-level factors as well as of course, the imperatives of the technology itself. Finally, we can begin to start to look more broadly at what the new ICTs can offer to traditional models of representation in rapidly changing advanced industrial democracies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2004
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