Learning to live with the Internet - How European parliamentarians are adapting to the digital age

The aim of this study is to explore how members of parliament (MPs) in all the legislatures of the European Union are responding to the digital age. It is now almost a decade since most parliamentarians were first confronted by the existence of the internet and began their long, sometimes painful journey of adaptation – and sometimes resistance.

In the research reported here, Coleman and Nathanson look at how technology-friendly, early-adopter parliamentarians have embraced the internet. This is the first cross-country European study of how they think about their role as e-parliamentarians. As pioneers and trendsetters, the hopes and concerns articulated now by these early-adopters may well be expressed by significantly more parliamentarians in the next five to ten years.

Stephen Coleman is Cisco Professor of eDemocracy at the Oxford Internet Institute and Senior Research Fellow at Jesus College, Oxford.
Bridie Nathanson is Director of Polpit Ltd., which undertakes research and strategy projects in the fields of e-democracy, e-governance and political communications.

This research was conducted as part of the EPRI Knowledge project, funded by the European Commission’s Information Society Technologies (IST) Programme.