Hard to believe it!
I am reading the Political Consultants' Online Fundraising Primer and I am very surprised. From the beginning of this Political Program I thought that the way each society manages politics cannot be applied to all countries. Every society has a different reality and faces different problems. Politics cannot be handled as a one and only truth.
Some countries around the world respect and admired the U.S for the way democracy is established. As I see it (and tell me if I am wrong) common citizens are able to be part of the elections process. Citizens are volunteers, they put up yard signs, they want to meet their candidate and they get involved in the race. Nobody pays them to do it, they just feel a commitment for electing the best candidate that will suit his/her needs. This is why people donate money to their candidates. Citizens still believe in their representatives, so they support them. But that's the American case.
In other countries I am positive that few citizens will donate money to their citizens. Citizens in some countries do not believe anymore in their politicians. The ones that donate money to X or Y campaign are close, rich friends of the candidate, waiting for a political position. So I applaud the political process in the U.S, which involves citizens and they are able to be active agents.
While reading the document on fundraising I was astonished to learn that online fundraising has developed rapidly. Candidates in the USA are successfully fundraising online almost half the money they make for their campaigns. It seems everyone in the States is now more focused on online campaigning. Will it be a day that the Internet has the same impact around the world? Hopefully yes, but that will take time, education and money.
2 Comments:
I found this entry very interesting and agree that politics is different in every country, and even in every state within the U.S. Quite frankly, I would be very surprised if other countries utilize the interney the way we do. However, I hope that the other countries do take note of the internet and make it possible for their citizens to become active in their Democratic system via the internet. Maybe if we had internet presence in Iraq then people could vote or contribute to the building of their Democracy without having to fear being shor by insurgents.
11:24 AM
I happen to think that we do not have a lot of political participation in the US, especially if you look at Europe. It's very easy for us, as Americans, to boil down politicial participation with the amount of money people give. But some people do still give to candidates because they want access, not because they believe in the candidate. Imagine instead if you measured political participation in terms of the knowledge of the electorate. I think it would be a very different picture.
2:32 PM
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