DRAWING CONCLUSIONS: A REVOLUTION IN THE MIDDLE

In what sense is the contemporary information revolution really revolutionary for democracy in the United States? Together the conclusions of the previous chapters suggest a set of important changes that are concentrated between the level of the mass public and institutions of the state itself – a revolution in the middle. The use of technologies associated with the Internet by political actors is making information and communication increasingly abundant: inexpensive, decentralized, and widely distributed. A central feature of this abundance is that information flows more readily within and between organizations than at any time in the past. The traditional boundaries, resources, and structures of organizations have less influence over who has facility with political information and communication and who does not. In this sense, information itself is becoming politically less institutionalized. As a result, processes of political intermediation, organizing, and mobilizing appear to be changing. Some traditional political organizations, such as Environmental Defense, the Libertarian Party, and members of the Save the E-Rate Coalition, are undergoing changes as they adapt to information abundance, while more flexible, ad hoc organizations, such as the Million Mom March, appear better able than ever before to have a voice in politics, if not necessarily to defeat richer organizations outright.

A second feature of information abundance is the reinforcement of patterns of political engagement and disengagement at the level of political individuals.