Politics, Democracy, and the Internet

This page contains some sample links to accompany a lecture in CSE/IMT 100, Nov 1, 2000.

The Election

Political Parties and Campaigns

Some Campaigns

George W Bush
Al Gore
Ralph Nader
Yes on Initiative 745 ("Shall 90% of transportation funds, including transit taxes, be spent for roads; transportation agency performance audits required; and road construction and maintenance be sales tax-exempt?")
No on Initiative 745

And the Usual Parodies

Web-Enabled Vote Trading

Legislative and other Government Information on the Web

Thomas (congressional legislation)
House of Representatives
Senate
The White House
TVW (Washington State's Public Affairs Network)

This is true for other countries as well:

VICNET Government Page (Victoria, Australia)
Government of Singapore (see also Official Singapore website)
Example Government Information links (from VICNET)

Citizen-Government Communication

Many elected officials, as well as government employees, have e-mail addresses, allowing easy communication from citizens with e-mail access.

Perhaps too easy? For example, there was a remailer that would send a copy of your message to every representative or every senator with e-mail. (The remailer is now offline as a result of abuses.)

Here are some sample links to a variety of political and citizen organizations. This list is intended to provide some interesting data points, rather than any kind of comprehensive survey!

Online News Sources

Access Issues

Web Pages for Citizen's Groups

National Rife Association
Christian Coalition
Sierra Club
Transportation Choices Coalition
Stop Prisoner Rape
www.engagedcitizen.org (UW center for Communication and Civic Engagement)

Hate Groups

Aryan Nations
Stormfront (a white supremacist organization)
Zundelsite (Holocaust revisionists)

There are also directions available on the internet for building bombs, making flame throwers, etc etc. I'll let you search it out.

And some opponents:

And some opponents to opponents:

DeesWatch.compound

Online Discussion

Further Information

There is tons. Here are two from a political science perspective:

Various research papers by Bruce Bimber, Department of Political Science, University of California Santa Barbara, on information technology and democracy. (In particular see The Internet and Political Transformation: Populism, Community, and Accelerated Pluralism.)
Richard Davis, "The Web of Politics: The Internet's Impact on the American Political System", Oxford University Press, 1999. (Available in the UW library system.)