The Political Role of the Internet in Societies in Transition

Abstract

Our research investigates the opportunities provided by the Internet for political parties to communicate to the electorate, and the extent to which party websites are used versus other information sources on the Web. We find that parties in Parliament, major parties and newly created parties are more prominent online than others, and, based on standard quality indicators, that parliamentary parties and new parties have better quality websites. This confirms some of the findings concerning parties online in established democracies. On comparing party with news websites, however, we find that sites of online-only newspapers are the most popular; that online versions of offline news outlets are of secondary importance, in contrast to what has been found in established democracies; and that party and politician websites are of least importance to users, based on the number of hits to these websites. The political role of the Internet in Russia and Ukraine is discussed in conclusion.