ABSTRACT
It is now over 20 years since political parties began to move online and fight elections using new internet technologies, although in most established democracies it took another decade, or more, before internet access spread to the majority of voters. A series of articles in the late 1990s and early 2000s discussed the evolution of election campaigning over the course of the last century. Commonly, they identified three campaign stages tied to changes in the social and political environment, party organizations and the media-communication nexus. There was considerable hope at the outset that the internet might offer at least a partial solution to declining turnouts and increasing dissatisfaction with politics and parties. Skeptics, however, pointed out that the basis of any mobilization effects were mainly built on technologically determinist approaches but largely neglected political and social factors that shaped voters predilection to participate or engage with parties.
