Why has the US witnessed greater levels of online campaigning than the UK?

Résumé du document

Obama's recent success in the 2008 US presidential election owns much to his ability and the one of his followers to use the internet as a core political tool in his campaign. Over the last years in the US online campaigning has become a key tool in one's attempt to win an election; and the trend is likely to keep on further. The USA appears to be one of the only countries in the world to have reached such a level of online campaigning to have an undeniable impact on voters' behavior and therefore election results. The contrast with most European Union countries, and notably the UK, is striking.

However it would be too easy to pin the blame on the fact that such trend is due to the gap in the proportion of people considered as online in both countries, namely 76 in the USA and 60 in the UK in 2005 (Anstead and Chadwick: 2009; 56). One may consider rather that the best way to understand the reasons for such tendency lies in an astute analysis of both political institution respective characteristics'; and more especially their particular relationship with the Internet in the large sense.

Extraits

[...] “Online lessons for UK in Obama BBC News. Margolis, M., Resnick, D. and Wolfe, J. (1999) “Party Competition on the Internet in the United States and Britain” Press/Politics pp. 24-47. Ward, S. and Gibson, R (2009) “European political organizations and the internet: Mobilization, participation and change” in Chadwick, A. [...]

[...] It seems that the UK has been slowly experiencing this new form of online campaigning as well, mainly through David Cameron's webCameron. However, according to Greg Jackson, the executive director of Tangent a digital company which is developing Labour's Web strategy, one of the main differences between the UK and the USA lies in the permanent risk for snap elections in the former; he argues that online campaigning requires long-term planning and “that Americans know exactly when their elections will be held and can plan two-years ahead” (BBC: Douglas; 2008). [...]

[...] Why has the US witnessed greater levels of online campaigning than the UK? Obama's recent success in the 2008 US presidential election owns much to his ability and the one of his followers to use the internet as a core political tool in his campaign. Over the last years in the US online campaigning has become a key tool in one's attempt to win an election; and the trend is likely to keep on further. The USA appears to be one of the only countries in the world to have reached such a level of online campaigning to have an undeniable impact on voters' behavior and therefore election results. [...]

[...] Hence one would conclude that, though online campaigning is much more developed in the US than it is in the UK, the British model appears to be more egalitarian. Indeed it does not witness a huge gap in the online political presence of its minor parties compare to major ones, and so online campaigning is not either that is, more egalitarian and less “Republican” or “Democratic-centered” as it is in the US. Finally, Obama's recent historical victory has raised much hope as well as questions, especially on the extent to which his successful model of online campaigning could be exported in the UK. [...]

[...] Hence US political institutions indirectly make of the internet a vital tool for campaigning or reaching potential voters for US political parties and organizations. Other factors which are of great relevance for this study and related as well to the nature itself of the US political structure refer to the very particular system of “Primaries” in US elections and the nature of one's membership to a political party. The system of primary elections in the USA during which candidate are selected through party members' vote, or even sometimes popular vote in some 2 states, provides parties with the opportunity to start campaigning online sometimes two years ahead of elections while in the UK no direct participation by the general public is required (Anstead and Chadwick: 2009; 65). [...]