Testing the Internet's Effect on Democratic Satisfaction: A Multi-Methodological, Cross-National Approach

Abstract

ABSTRACT While recent events spotlighted the Internet's capacity to make political organization more efficient once disaffected citizens are moved to action, this article tests another component of the Internet's potential to influence the cost-benefit calculus of political behavior: how the Internet influences the motivation to act or organize in the first place. After introducing two causal mechanisms—the Internet's mirror-holding and window-opening functions—this article tests the Internet's influence on citizens' (dis)satisfaction with the way that “democracy” functions in their own countries. This includes a random effects regression of panel data at the country level and a mixed-level regression of cross-sectional survey data at the individual level. The next section of this article presents the results from a randomized field experiment conducted in Bosnia and Herzegovina, enabling a direct test of the causal relationship shared by Internet use and (dis)satisfaction. The findings uncovered in each of these tests substantiate the Internet's clear, consistent, and considerable influence on democratic satisfaction. Whereas the Internet is correlated with enhanced satisfaction in advanced democracies, it is associated with depressed satisfaction in nations with weak democratic practices. [Supplementary materials are available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Journal of Information Technology & Politics to view the free supplemental files.]