Is the Internet Changing Our Conception of Democracy? An Analysis of the Internet Use During Protests and Its Effect on the Perception of Democracy

26 Pages Posted: 16 Jul 2012 Last revised: 4 Jul 2014

See all articles by Javier Sajuria

Javier Sajuria

University College London - School of Public Policy, Department of Political Science

Date Written: 2011

Abstract

During 2010-2011 we have seen the rise of social movements around the globe. The student protests in UK, the Arab Spring in the Middle East, the Indignados in Spain, the student demonstrations in Chile and other Latin American countries, and the Occupy Wall Street movement – which has been replicated in different cities across the US and abroad. They represent different sectorial and political aspirations, but all of them relied heavily on the Internet to communicate and organise. This research analyses two specific contentious processes – the UK student protests and the Chilean environmentalist protests in 2010 - to assess the effect that the Internet may have had on the protesters’ perception of democracy. In both cases, protesters used Twitter and Facebook to communicate with other protesters and to transmit information to mainstream media. Through data gathered from online surveys, interviews, and the Oxford Internet Survey 2009, this article observes the effect of the Internet in two dimensions: support for democracy, and the protesters’ conception of democracy. The data is analysed using methodological triangulation. Several linear and logistic regression models are combined with a qualitative analysis of the interviews. The findings show that the Internet affects the way that people perceive democracy, especially in relation with the concept of democracy between protesters. The evidence points towards the Internet fostering a more horizontal concept of democracy, based on the idea of less hierarchical political organisation. In that regard, respondents tended to connect the use of the Internet with ideas such as referendums, equal participation rights and more horizontal relations between constituents and representatives. This article raises concern about the actual democratic capabilities of the Internet. The question is whether the Internet is inherently democratic or if the observed effect is just the result of a performativity process, fostered by the utopian discourse about the online world.

Keywords: Internet politics, protest, democracy, public opinion

Suggested Citation

Sajuria, Javier, Is the Internet Changing Our Conception of Democracy? An Analysis of the Internet Use During Protests and Its Effect on the Perception of Democracy (2011). APSA 2012 Annual Meeting Paper, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2109991 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2109991

Javier Sajuria (Contact Author)

University College London - School of Public Policy, Department of Political Science ( email )

29/30 Tavistock Square
London, WC1H 9QU
United Kingdom

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
554
Abstract Views
2,108
Rank
82,138
PlumX Metrics