Political use of the Internet in developing democracies

consciously set out to utilize the new technologies for purposes of standardisation, control, or repression” (Barber, 1999).

democratic political parties in the newly established democracies are using the Internet for their democratic objective, particularly during election campaigns. This is very important to see to what extent political parties are capable of using the Internet in targeting effectively niche audiences among specific population groups, particularly young people.

Are these political parties cooperating with other democratic social parties across the world? Another important question is to what extent can the use of the ICTs diminish the deeply uprooted totalitarian political culture to instill new civic culture instead and how are anti-democratic political forces employing the Internet to defend their anti-democratic aspirations.

All these issues are to be examined to provide a precise account of the democratising or anti-democratising effects of the ICTs. However, John Downing remarks that studies on the role of the Internet in newly established democracies like Russia are doomed to be speculative, because of the relative novelty of this complex topic (Downing, 2002).

1.4.2.2 Positive

Some early studies show that some political groups are using the Internet for political reasons in Russia (Stafeev, 2003). According to Stafeev, democratic parties, social movements and pro-democratic activists are used the Internet massively. These groups dominate the world of the Internet in counties with newly established democracies. Their use of electronic bulletin boards, e-mail and newsgroups is relatively intensive.

The role of these ICTs is to be assessed in terms of strengthening democratic political parties and civil society, working in favor of consolidating the democratic process.

Political parties have begun to experiment with Internet-based political communication, by establishing an electronic presence on the Internet. The challenge of the Internet has forced political parties to rethink their communicative strategies and approaches to political communication. In the context of elections the number of websites has increased. These websites are created to advance their social and political programs.

Political websites can mobilize political solidarities within the territorial boundaries, challenging existing structures of authoritarianism, pursuing political emancipation. Computer networks can greatly facilitate small-group participation-within

groups, between groups, and between groups and their constituencies. They thus help to strengthen the forces of civil society. The use of the Internet by grassroots networks of civil society has been growing in the last decade (Schmidt, 2003). Due to the networking capabilities of the Internet, Russian civil society groups have developed global networks that provide them with know-how and logistical works. In 1999, for instance, the Center for Civil Society International produced a guide to Grassroots Organizations and the Internet to provide a step-by-step guide to successful Internet use for civil society groups (Schmidt, 2003).

Since little research has been carried out, no assessment about the true democratic effects of the ICTs in newly democratic countries can be accurate. But the basic point to be made about the Internet in regard to consolidation is that Internet technologies such as chat rooms and e-mail and listserver applications are of special significance to civil society in a context where the recent gained liberties were rolled back. Putin’s doctrine of “dictatorship of the law” has considerable weakened democratic forces and has led to a re-establishment of Soviet-type dictatorship on information (Schmidt, 2003). The big role of the Internet in Russia is to subvert the censorship of information flow. The mass media in Russia is under tight control, yet the country is experiencing a democratic transition. Since the mass media was silenced during the Chechen war, the Internet has provided many anti-Chechen-war groups with an outlet to report on the war and provide unbiased and accurate news about the fighting and the massacre of the Russian army. Due to the new medium people are supposed to be well informed, because there are many information sources and possibilities for information.

The political use of the Internet is rapidly expanding from political discussions on the Internet to political use of e-mail and list-servers. The Internet may be, as some commentators have suggested, one of the important tools of political communication in Russian politics. The accessibility is at stake in discussing whether people are responding to the digital communicative strategies of democratic parties. The problem is that the penetration of the Internet in Russia is still limited to a small number of percentages of people due to lack of telecommunication infrastructures, the prohibitive cost of services and computer illiteracy (Schmidt, 2003).

Given the huge technological development in terms of digitalisation and broadband technology, along with the new communicative possibilities of the Internet, the political use of the Internet seems likely to continue and proliferate, so that almost all political

actors maintain websites. However there are many obstacles that hinder the political use of the Internet in Russia, namely the inadequate and expensive telecommunications system and the lack of computer managerial skills. Many scholars assume that the Russian government can not control the use of the Internet by civil society groups in the same way the Soviet regime could not keep away American and European broadcasting such as BBC, Radio Free Europe or Deutsche Welle (Schmidt, 2003).

1.4.2.3 Negative

Some argue that the Internet is associated with the re-emergence of some old reactionary political forces and energies. The Internet creates an environment in which political organizations, political solidarities and mobilization of non-democratic forces across and within these countries can thrive. Its potential of connecting like-minded groups at a global level is evident in the massive growth of transnational right wing violent movements such as neo-nazi movements across Europe.

The Russian government has shown no hesitation to tightly regulate the Internet.

The Russian government has developed a number of pieces of regulation to establish strong control over the political use of the Internet. In terms of legal restriction, the Russian government adopted in 2000 a media policy designed to restrict certain information flow. In addition, the Russian government has developed a range of technological methods to restrict access to certain websites. In 1999, the KGB forced Internet Service Providers to install surveillance and encryption software technologies to keep a watchful eye on any type of online activities. If the Internet Service Providers resisted these measures, they would lose their Internet licenses (Sussman, 2000). A widely famous case occurred in February 2000, when one Internet Service Provider was temporarily blocked, others were hacked and destroyed by the Russian government.