Internet and opportunities of political participation – Examining Brazilian and American senators’ websites

Abstract

This article examines the personal websites of political representatives taking into account the main resources offered to make the political participation of citizens feasible. If, on the one hand, one can indicate many possibilities brought by the Internet to improve political practices, on the other hand, the examples of actual use of digital tools to strengthen the citizens’ participation are scarce. This paper proposes an analytical grid to evaluate the quantity and quality of the tools present in senators’ websites. The idea of “levels of citizens’ participation” seeks to measure how porous these websites are on the basis of the importance they give to citizens’ contributions. The empirical comparison between websites of Brazilian and American senators leads to the conclusion that the Internet could be far better used to improve democratic participation.

Key words: communication, internet, democracy.