ABSTRACT
Recent contributions to debates on electronic democracy have challenged two perceived biases in the literature. According to Hoff et al. (2000a: 1-2) debate has focused ‘too greatly on the technology itself’ and has been ‘highly Americano-centric’.1 Their own work, along with that of a number of other authors, has sought to address this dual distortion, bringing human agency back into the equation and drawing on case studies beyond the United States, especially from Western Europe. Nevertheless, it is reasonable to argue that the literature continues to exhibit a narrow empirical focus, inasmuch as it is concerned principally with developments in the established democracies. There are two compelling reasons why this should be the case. First, the established democracies are generally the most technologically advanced countries, and they evince the greatest degree of penetration of information and communications technologies (ICTs). Second, they exhibit the classic symptoms of malaise of representative democracy that ICTs are purported to help cure or transform.2 The technology needs to be there before it can have an impact; political systems have to be democratic before they can suffer a ‘crisis of democracy’. Put the other way around, the reason why countries like Mexico have not been analysed to date is that they are insufficiently electronic and insufficiently democratic.3
