ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the use of ICTs by political parties and postulates the changes that may accrue from further developments. It incorporates initial observations from the first stages of an ongoing research project concentrating on an analysis of how political parties make use of new technologies. The project took as its pilot case studies Sweden and Holland. Both of these countries have above-EU average levels of computer ownership. Figures as of January 1998 were: Sweden with 26 PCs1 per 100 inhabitants and the Netherlands with 29.5 per 100 inhabitants, of which 13.6 and 14.8 per 100 inhabitants, respectively, were for private or non-business use (ISPO 1998). In relation to the latter, 330,000 and 404,400 homes, respectively, had internet access as of the end of 1997 (ibid.).
