The Internet and Democratic Citizenship

Stephen Coleman is Professor of Political Communication and Co-Director of the Centre for Digital Citizenship at the Institute of Communications Studies at the University of Leeds. He was previously Professor of e-Democracy at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford and a senior fellow of Jesus College, Oxford. In recent years he has served as specialist adviser to the House of Commons Information Select Committee inquiry on ICT and public participation in Parliament, a member of the Puttnam Commission on parliamentary communication with the public and chair of the Electoral Reform Society's Independent Commission on Alternative Voting Methods. His publications include Bowling Together (with John Gotze, 2001; Realising Democracy Online: A Civic Commons in Cyberspace (with Jay G. Blumler, 2001; A Tale of Two Houses: The House of Commons, the Big Brother House and the People at Home (2003); and Direct Representation: Towards a Conversational Democracy (2005). He has contributed numerous articles and chapters to academic volumes.

This book examines how the Internet can improve public communications and enrich democracy.

1. Democracy's deliberative deficit; 2. A crisis of public communication; 3. From indirect to direct representation; 4. E-democracy from above; 5. E-democracy from below; 6. Shaping e-democracy.