The Internet and Politics Social & Political Alignments

The Internet and Politics Agenda for Today  What are “political alignments”?  Why do alignments matter?  The concept of alignments in comparative politics  The impact of the Net

The Internet and Politics What are “alignments”?  Alignments divisions cleavages  Cleavage structures  Types of cleavages  Class  Gender  Race  Ethnicity  Language  Religion

The Internet and Politics Why alignments matter class ethnicity gender racereligion language } alignments alignment structure political stability individual behaviour party systems

The Internet and Politics Comparative politics  Explanatory variable  Shape party systems, behaviour, stability  Dependent variable  Result of historical and social forces  Key issues:  Where they come from  How they change  How they shape politics Alignments are:

The Internet and Politics Lipset/Rokkan What to look for:  Political science approach  Cleavages as explanatory variable  Origins of cleavage systems  Understanding key forces

The Internet and Politics Lipset/Rokkan Landed interests Urban interests Landed interests Urban interests Landed interests Industrial Revolution Dominant church Catholic minority State & Church Secular movement Democratic Revolution ProtestantCatholic Reformation

The Internet and Politics Inglehart Three step argument: 1.System level changes 2.Leads to individuals who… 3.Leads to system-level consequences

The Internet and Politics Inglehart Consequences of “culture shift”: Dealignment OR Realignment OR Synthesis

The Internet and Politics The Impact of the Net

The Internet and Politics The Impact of the Net A demographic blip? OR A true causal relationship? Questions to ask: Opinion patterns of Net users vs. non-users? Influence of demographics? Causal mechanisms?

The Internet and Politics Norris: Cyberculture Components:  hypothesis  independent variable  dependent variable  observable implications  causal relationship  research method  unit of analysis  case

The Internet and Politics Discussion