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Googling Democracy: A Comparison of Democracy Promoters on the Internet

Googling Democracy: A Comparison of Democracy Promoters on the Internet

Nelli Babayan, Stefano Braghiroli
Copyright: © 2014 |Pages: 16
ISBN13: 9781466660663|ISBN10: 146666066X|EISBN13: 9781466660670
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-6066-3.ch020
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MLA

Babayan, Nelli, and Stefano Braghiroli. "Googling Democracy: A Comparison of Democracy Promoters on the Internet." Handbook of Research on Political Activism in the Information Age, edited by Ashu M. G. Solo, IGI Global, 2014, pp. 335-350. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-6066-3.ch020

APA

Babayan, N. & Braghiroli, S. (2014). Googling Democracy: A Comparison of Democracy Promoters on the Internet. In A. Solo (Ed.), Handbook of Research on Political Activism in the Information Age (pp. 335-350). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-6066-3.ch020

Chicago

Babayan, Nelli, and Stefano Braghiroli. "Googling Democracy: A Comparison of Democracy Promoters on the Internet." In Handbook of Research on Political Activism in the Information Age, edited by Ashu M. G. Solo, 335-350. Hershey, PA: IGI Global, 2014. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-6066-3.ch020

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Abstract

The spillover of the Arab Spring is often attributed to the increased use of the Internet and various social networks. In addition, many established democracies and international organizations have adopted democracy promotion as their foreign policy objectives. Heads of states regularly praise democracy and reiterate their commitment to its promotion. However, the on-ground activities of democracy promoters remain largely unknown to the broader population. Nevertheless, given the growing influence of non-democratic but economically successful and resource-rich countries, democracy promoters more than ever need to “win the hearts and minds” of these populations. This chapter compares techniques and the extent of publicising democracy promotion, by focusing on the online presence of democracy promoters as the most cost-effective opportunity of communicating goals, strategies, and accomplishments. The chapter categorizes individual Websites of democracy promoters according to their structural, graphic, informative, and programmatic features. This chapter focuses on the EU and USAID in Eastern Europe, Middle East, North Africa, the South Caucasus, and Central Asia. Quantitative and qualitative cross-country and cross-promoter variances are explored by analyzing a wide array of explanatory dimensions. The results suggest that the two promoters vary in their levels of e-activeness and their involvement in Internet-based activities of democracy promotion, with the EU showing a systematically higher commitment in the studied regions. In addition, Internet penetration, the level of democratic development, and geo-political factors are likely to affect a promoter's e-activeness.

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