Computer networks and political participation: Santa Monica's teledemocracy project

Abstract

New communication technologies have been touted as a way to improve political participation by facilitating the flow of political information and opinion between citizens and their leaders. A project in Santa Monica, California, broke new ground for teledemocracy experiments with Public Electronic Network (PEN), the first government‐sponsored computer network intended as a supplemental channel of communication between a city government and citizens. This paper examines how computer networks in general, and PEN in particular, match the ideals of teledemocracy through a descriptive and historical analysis of Santa Monica's Public Electronic Network. “Populist”; uses of communication technology, such as electronic town halls in which information control remains centralized for the politically powerful and citizen feedback is restricted, are seen as less true to teledemocratic ideals than “pluralist”; uses, in which information control is diffused and citizen involvement is facilitated. This analysis concludes that interactive computer networks are well‐suited for facilitating pluralistic political participation. In addition, PEN's hardware and software design is well‐suited to accomplish teledemocratic goals of early and continuous participation in policy formation and decision‐making processes of local government. Possible extensions of this analysis of PEN are discussed.