New Technologies and Not-So-New Democracies

Abstract

Discussions of the impact of the new media on democratic politics often generalize too broadly about new technologies and almost always take for granted a uniformity about democracies. Democra- cies vary across nations and over time. For the USA, it is argued that Americans have had four different visions of what political spe- ech and participation should be. American democracy has shifted from a citizenship of deference, to one of party enthusiasm, to a model of the informed citizen, to the contemporary model of irreve- rent citizenship. Each model calls forth different versions of a public sphere. What is the democracy that technology is having an impact on? This question must be integrated in the discussion of the impact of technology on democracy.