The nascent information superhighway is offering rapidly expanding opportunities for citizens to engage in political activities electronically. `Electronic democracy` projects have generated a great deal of speculation about how new network-based technologies will affect patterns of political access and participation, and ultimately, how these will affect the distribution of political influence and power in the US. This study involves a longitudinal survey of political participation at several electronic democracy sites, with the aim of producing an empirical profile of electronic participators. Data will be collected using on-line surveys at several electronic democracy sites, which will be conducted in three rounds spaced at six-month intervals. Questions will examine socioeconomic status, support for the political system, traditional participation habits, party identification and ideology, and extent of participation in the electronic democracy site. Data from the survey will be used to construct a statistical profile of users of electronic democracy at the sites included in the study. That profile will be compared with a profile of traditional political participators drawn from existing data in the National Election Studies and General Social Survey, and a series of hypotheses about differences between profiles tested. Among the aims of the study are: a) providing evidence about the extent to which the technology of electronic democracy may alleviate or exacerbate problems of access and alienation among low-income, less educated citizens; b) shedding empirical light on the claims of some that the technology may bring about a populist renewal of democracy; and c) exploring a new model of political participation that adds medium of participation to variables for individual-level characteristics and political context.
