This book is an inquiry into the evolution of American democracy. It explores an aspect of democratic politics in the United States about which surprisingly little is known: the relationship between characteristics of political information in society and broad properties of democratic power and practice. My inquiry is motivated in part by the dramatic revolution in information technology taking place at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Over the space of about five years, we have witnessed the adoption of new means for communication and management of information by virtually every political organization and institution of consequence in the country. At no time in the history of American democracy has a new set of communication and information-handling capacities been assimilated so rapidly by the political system.

The pace of these changes has precipitated much speculation about political change and transformation, from visions of direct democracy and erosion of processes of representation and institutional deliberation because of new technology to enhancement or degradation of the “public sphere” and the state of citizens' civic engagement. Such speculations resonate strongly in a period when democracy in America is enervated by many problems: low voter turnout, the distortions of money and campaign finance arrangements, low public trust, a political culture dominated by marketing and polling, and the profound influences of one particular technology, television. What the new capacities for communication and the management of information portend for such problems, and indeed whether they portend anything at all, is one focus of this book.