article

Civil Society and Cyber Society: The Role of the Internet in Community Associations and Democratic Politics

Authors:

Michael J. Jensen,

James N. Danziger,

Alladi VenkateshAuthors Info & Claims

The Information Society, Volume 23, Issue 1

Pages 39 - 50

https://doi.org/10.1080/01972240601057528

Published: 01 December 2007 Publication History

Abstract

A healthy civil society has long been held as vital to a healthy democracy and there is interest in whether the Internet affects this linkage. This paper explores the relationships between offline and online modes of associational life and also analyzes offline and online interactions with local governments in the US context. Based on our empirical analyses of 1,203 respondents, we show that online participation is not simply an extension of offline participation, but can be distinguished in important ways. First, we find that political and community-oriented engagements cluster separately from more private-regarding engagements. Second, participants of online democratic engagement are not characterized by the SES markers associated with offline democratic engagement who are older, have higher incomes, and have lived in the community longer. Finally, we find significant links between democratic engagement with the political system and involvement with political associations (but not social and community-oriented associations).

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Cited By

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Chen J(2017)Can online social networks foster young adults civic engagement?Telematics and Informatics10.1016/j.tele.2016.09.01334:5(487-497)Online publication date: 1-Aug-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.tele.2016.09.013
Nam T(2011)Whose e-democracy?Information Polity10.5555/2336145.233615316:2(131-150)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2011
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Civil Society and Cyber Society: The Role of the Internet in Community Associations and Democratic Politics

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cover image The Information Society

The Information Society Volume 23, Issue 1

December 2006

68 pages

ISSN:0197-2243

EISSN:1087-6537

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Routledge

United States

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Published: 01 December 2007

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Cited By

Chen JHiele TSirinimitwong T(2022)Does Political Information Dissemination Matter on Twitter?International Journal of E-Adoption10.4018/IJEA.30940214:1(1-22)Online publication date: 22-Sep-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.4018/IJEA.309402
Chen J(2017)Can online social networks foster young adults civic engagement?Telematics and Informatics10.1016/j.tele.2016.09.01334:5(487-497)Online publication date: 1-Aug-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.tele.2016.09.013
Nam T(2011)Whose e-democracy?Information Polity10.5555/2336145.233615316:2(131-150)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2011
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/2336145.2336153
Garrett RDanziger J(2011)The Internet electorateCommunications of the ACM10.1145/1897852.189788154:3(117-123)Online publication date: 1-Mar-2011
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1897852.1897881
Colombo C(2010)e-Participation experiences and local government in CataloniaProceedings of the 2nd IFIP WG 8.5 international conference on Electronic participation10.5555/1881566.1881575(82-94)Online publication date: 29-Aug-2010
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/1881566.1881575
Nam THADDAWY PYi HPARDO T(2010)New voices or old voices in political talk?Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance10.1145/1930321.1930386(317-326)Online publication date: 25-Oct-2010
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Nam THADDAWY PYi HPARDO T(2010)Internet effects on political participationProceedings of the 4th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance10.1145/1930321.1930385(307-316)Online publication date: 25-Oct-2010
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King SBrown P(2007)Fix my street or elseProceedings of the 1st international conference on Theory and practice of electronic governance10.1145/1328057.1328076(72-80)Online publication date: 10-Dec-2007
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1328057.1328076

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