Technologies for Constituent Communication in the U.S. Congress

Abstract

Elected representatives use a myriad of technologies to communicate with their constituencies. Yet growing evidence finds that these technologies often promote one-way promotional forms of communication that push citizens away from policymakers and their decision-making process. Using theories in deliberative and representative democracy, I designed a week-long, asynchronous, online forum where a Member of Congress and constituents could deliberate a single policy topic. For my dissertation, I am testing the relation between the use of the online forum and feelings of deliberation, policymaker trust, and political efficacy of citizens. The ultimate goal is to determine if these online platforms can empower citizens to effectively participate in the federal legislative process.