Some local governments are taking the lead in bringing the Internet into community life.\u00a0 More local governments have Web sites than Americans are aware of.\u00a0 And local officials are embracing email as a tool in their constituent relations, perhaps to a degree that many of their constituents do not fully appreciate.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n
The scale of local government allows for two-way communications over email that may not be feasible at higher levels of government.\u00a0 Online local officials say they have been quite able to handle the volume of email that they receive.\u00a0 Furthermore, email allows officials to show a responsiveness unfettered by the time restraints of returning phone calls or the expense of preparing and mailing letters.\u00a0 It also provides opportunity for outreach, rather than mere responsiveness, to the community.<\/p>\n\n
But in many areas, email has a way to go in being considered a conduit for \u201cserious\u201d civic communications.\u00a0 Perhaps email is \u201ctoo easy\u201d to use and is discounted by some officials as an inappropriate and ineffective tool for communicating with citizens.\u00a0 While it is very useful for information gathering and sharing, it has yet to demonstrate a robust effect in consensus building and decision-making.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n
Does this mean that email is just another communication tool that may speed up some information exchanges, but has no net effect on the local political scene? At first glance, it may seem that this is the case.\u00a0 Given the small number of Americans who use the Web for local purposes, and even smaller number who are aware of email being used to engage local officials, those officials who do use the Internet to talk to citizens may be dealing with a political and technical elite.\u00a0 The technical elite may disappear as more and more people come online to use email.\u00a0 But the political elite \u2013 those who are sufficiently involved to initiate contact with local officials \u2013 are likely to remain a small and consistent group.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n
Nonetheless, email does have some democratizing effects of its own.\u00a0 It is an effective anonymizer, erasing racial and economic differences.\u00a0 (The Santa Monica PEN network allowed homeless participants using free library terminals to have a voice in debates without betraying their status.)\u00a0 It allows residents to find their own time for entering discussion.\u00a0 In short, it reduces barriers to public participation, allowing citizens to investigate participation without undue time and expense.\u00a0 While this by no means guarantees that politically apathetic individuals will suddenly gain a zeal for politics, it may allow some entry into local political life by those who would otherwise have neither the time nor the contacts.<\/p>\n\n
Those officials who use email are to some degree participating in the reshaping of the local political base.\u00a0 A majority (54%) noted that their use of email had brought them into contact with citizens from whom they had not heard before.\u00a0 And another group (21%) found in mass email campaigns a sense of unity and purpose of which they had been previously unaware.\u00a0 Email is bringing greater connectivity to and appreciation of local constituencies.\u00a0 So local officials who use email are facilitating the entrance of new political participants to American cities.\u00a0 <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Conclusions Some local governments are taking the lead in bringing the Internet into community life.\u00a0 More local governments have Web sites than Americans are aware of.\u00a0 And local officials are embracing email as a tool in their constituent relations, perhaps to a degree that many of their constituents do not fully appreciate.\u00a0 The scale of 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