The Internet and Islam – The Digital Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy

Philip Howard, Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Washington has just published The Internet and Islam – The Digital Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy. The book investigates the impact of digital technologies on civic life in countries with significant Muslim communities.  According to Howard,  “The book uses innovative comparative methods to look at how technologies like the mobile phone and internet have changed the very meaning of citizenship…[O]n the whole the prognosis is good:  in the last 15 years, technology diffusion trends have contributed to clear political outcomes, and digital media have become a key ingredient in the modern recipe for democratization.”  Read more from the publisher.

“Digital Origins” investigates the impact of digital technologies on civic life in countries with significant Muslim communities.  The book uses some innovative comparative methods to look at how technologies like the mobile phone and internet have changed the very meaning of citizenship.  There are chapters on state capacity, political parties, journalism and civil society.  There is also, as you might expect, a chapter on how new technologies make some dictators better dictators.  But on the whole the prognosis is good:  in the last 15 years, technology diffusion trends have contributed to clear political outcomes, and digital media have become a key ingredient in the modern recipe for democratization.