The Democratic Potential of Information and Communication Technologies An Alternative to the 'Clash of Civilizations'?

Date of Award

2004

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Hicks, Barbara

Keywords

Islam, Democracy, Technology

Area of Concentration

Political Science

Abstract

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have often been hailed as the harbingers of a new global democratic age, but how much democratizing capacity can be attributed to these developments? This thesis approaches this puzzle with a comparative study of countries with a Muslim majority. This research is particularly interesting as my results help undermine culturally fundamentalist arguments that characterize Islamic culture and democracy as mutually exclusive. I addressed the puzzle from three different angles: statistical analysis, political theory, and case studies. The results show that, first, GDP is a stronger correlate to democracy than ICT diffusion, except at high income levels where certain technologies become more significant than GDP. These results hint at a potential relationship worthy of further investigation, even if not statistically definitive. Applying public sphere theory to the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Nigeria, and Indonesia, I found that ICTs are being used by both citizens and regimes to alter the public sphere in order to control or promote civic pluralist discourse. Promotion of civic pluralist discourse can spark the beginnings of civil society organization, considered a prerequisite for democracy, and the use of ICTs towards such ends merits further research.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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