Reinvigorating Democracy?: British Politics and the Internet by Rachel K. Gibson Stephen Ward

Author:Rachel K. Gibson, Stephen Ward [Rachel K. Gibson, Stephen Ward]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Philosophy, General, Political Science, Social Science
ISBN: 9781351745239
Google: V-1HDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-11-22T03:32:09+00:00

British Parties On-line: The Evidence Revisited

Presence

Since the Labour Party moved on-line in 1994 there has been a rapid expansion of party activity in cyberspace. Our first survey at the end of 1996 identified 28 parties on-line. By May 1997 this had risen to 33. The current survey located 46 parties with a web-site. Table 6.1 indicates that the main period of growth was in 1996 in preparation for the general election and Figure 6.1 provides a graphic illustration of a domino effect in the growth of web-sites. Parties do indeed seem to have been stimulated into action through peer pressure and the coming election campaign.

While parties of all sizes, ideological persuasion and geographical location have taken to the Web, in terms of the speed of adaptation, there is little in the UK that would support the notion that marginalised parties have been the innovators. The Labour Party’s reported start date for their web-site is the earliest (October, 1994) and within 18 months (April 1996), virtually all the parliamentary parties possessed their own web-site. The sole exception being the small UK Unionist Party. By contrast, of the fringe parties, only the extreme right wing National Democratic Party and National Front could be counted as pioneers, creating their sites as early as 1995. In short, the non-parliamentary parties have been relatively slow to move into cyberspace.

Table 6.1 UK Party Web-site Launch Dates

Order

Date Established

Party Name (s)

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