ABSTRACT
The Dean campaign enabled the nearly instantaneous development of a new political structure, with over 1,000 chapters nationwide. Most of those chapters had local structures and governance mechanisms. Thousands of people engaged in the campaign in a creative way, by developing a slogan, a song, a poster, or a new way of gathering signatures and sharing information. Dean raised more money online than any candidate had to that point, from hundreds of thousands of small donors who had not previously been major players in primary politics. While not the sole cause, Dean’s use of the Internet was critical in catapulting him into a leading role in the presidential primary, such that forty-six out of fifty pundits quizzed in December 2003 predicted that he would be the nominee. 1 The campaign overthrew the common wisdom about fundraising that had dominated American politics for at least a generation. The campaign also confirmed, as William Greider has put it, “the existence of an energetic, informed dissent within the husk of the Democratic Party.” 2
