Ranch State and CitizenSpace: Digital Democracy and Web Strategies for the United States and the United Kingdom.

To begin to grasp the relationship of digital democracy and foreign affairs at the nation-state level, this paper raises the following questions: Does the web presence of national foreign policy organizations represent any advance in the notion of digital democracy? Also, does the website, as microcosm, represent the future of the organizational mission or strategy of a nation-state?s foreign affairs department? To accomplish these goals, this paper provides an overview of both the notion of digital democracy as well as a snapshot of the ?state of relations? between public opinion and foreign policy formation, followed by an overview of the institutional tendencies of both the United States and the United Kingdom in constructing governmental online presence and finally an analysis of the content and functionality of the U.S. Department of State and the U.K. Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) web sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]