What is Policy-Politics

This chapter analyzes the “impact” of information and communication technologies (ICTs) on local government officials’ policy decision-making. Specifically, this chapter answers to what extent they use the Internet to communicate and obtain information and to what extent do their online interactions with “citizens” influence their policy decisions. A national sample of elected local government officials from the United States were surveyed regarding their ICT use and their interactions with stakeholders. The principal findings of the chapter are that, while officials are making extensive use of ICTs to communicate with actors and obtain information, citizens have more influence on policy decisions via offline media.