The digital origins of dictatorship and democracy
Subtitle: information technology and political Islam
By: Philip N. Howard.
Series: Oxford studies in digital politics
Publisher: Oxford Univesity Press; Oxford University Press
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Oxford; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 285
ISBN-13: 9780199736416; 9780199736423
Subjects: Information technology -- Political aspects -- Islamic countries; Internet -- Political aspects -- Islamic countries; Islamic countries -- Politics and government
Description: Around the developing world, political leaders face a dilemma: the very information and communication technologies that boost economic fortunes also undermine power structures. Globally, one in ten internet users is a Muslim living in a populous Muslim community. In these countries, young people are developing political identities online, and digital technologies are helping civil society build systems of political communication independent of the state and beyond easy manipulation by cultural or religious elites. With unique data on patterns of media ownership and technology use, this book demonstrates how, since the mid-1990s, information technologies have had a role in political transformation. Democratic revolutions are not caused by new information technologies. But in the Muslim world, democratization is no longer possible without them. -- Publisher description.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.