What characterises contemporary democratic political struggles? According to the post-Marxist theory of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, it is their sheer unknowability, the fact that there can be no certainties, no fixed grounding. Drawing a distinction between the 'certainties' of classical Marxism (i. e. base/superstructure) and the more 'diffuse' nature of modem democratic demands (such as sexual and gender equality, environmentalism and the peace movements), the emergence of a post-Marxist perspective has endeavoured to engage the widening imaginaries of present-day democratic politics. In this thesis the central post-Marxist category of radical democracy, defined literally as the 'multiplication of public spaces of antagonism, is interrogated in relation to new modes and ideas of contemporary political struggle, particularly those associated with the expansion of the ICTs and networks. Arguing for the need to consider politics beyond the somewhat outmoded and uninspiring description of the 'new social movements', this thesis critically investigates the emerging practices of politics and activism enabled by the technologies like the Internet, using the ideas of post-Marxism as a basis for generating new theories of radical democracy. Looking in particular at the practices of Tactical Media and Culture Jamming, together with new methods of interaction and consumption, such as peer-to-peer file sharing and open publishing on the Internet, this study demonstrates how radical democracy contains as yet unthoughtout critical potentials through which to examine the ICTs in relation to these nascent cultures of politics. These emerging political cultures, this thesis suggests, entail the articulation of other ways of conceiving democracy, the political and politics more appropriate to the increasingly networked nature of contemporary society.

The thesis focuses on the emergence of e-democracy in the UK between 1999 and 2013. It examines the part that policy actors have played in shaping the agenda. Emphasis is placed on how e-democracy is understood by those charged with developing initiatives and implementing government policy on e-democracy. Previous research on e-democracy has focused largely on the impact of Web technologies on political systems and/or on how, why and to what degree, citizens participate. Less attention is paid to what happens inside government, in how policy actors’ conceive public engagement in the policy process. Their perceptions and shared understandings are crucial to the commissioning, implementation, or deflection of participatory opportunities. This thesis is concerned with exploring how policy actors experience, interpret and negotiate e-democracy policy and practices and their perceptions of citizen involvement in the policy process. Competing discourses shape institutional expectations of e-democracy in the UK. The research examines how policy actors draw upon wider discourses such as the modernisation of government and the emphasis on transparency. It analyses understandings of technologies in government and the effects of relational interactions and linkages in policy and practice. The thesis draws on fieldwork in the UK from 23 in-depth, semi-structured interviews and participant observation data with a range of policy actors: civil servants from several government departments, government advisors and participation practitioners. In conjunction with interviews, documentary analysis was carried out on government documents, published between1999 and 2013. These focused on the role of Web technologies in government and include policy papers, advisory reports, audit reports and guidance for civil servants. Documentary analysis was combined with interviews and participant observation to compare the stated aims of e-democracy with the constraints and opportunities experienced by policy actors in their work. The findings highlight how contested interpretations of participation and differing approaches to technology affect the design, management and evaluation of projects. Such interpretations and contestations are not developed in isolation but emerge as actors come together in different spaces and configurations. Probing the relationships, motivations and perceptions of government insiders provides new insights about the development of e-democracy within the institutional context in the UK.

This study examines the potential for the Internet, or more specifically the World Wide Web, to enhance local democracy and local governance by providing a networked public sphere. It is located in post-industrial theories of social and political transformation, which see a new, uncertain and complex society emerging which may transform the political significance of the 'local'. Whilst a number of causes are identified as culpable in this process, it is the ICT revolution and the development of the Web in particular, that is seen as possessing a democratising potential that, if realised, may bring greater resilience to geographic localities. The potential of the Web to provide a new networked public sphere is based upon contested views that its topography, its hyperlinked structure, can enable the ordinary citizen's voice to be heard above those that traditionally dominate political discourse. However, there has been no attention paid to this potential being realised at a local governance level within which, this study argues, a favourable environment should exist for a local online networked public sphere to prosper. Accordingly, this prospect is empirically explored here through a case study of the use made of the Web by a variety of local civic, political and institutional actors during a 2008 local (Manchester, UK) referendum on introducing the largest traffic congestion charging scheme in the country. This research applies a distinctive mixed method approach within a conceptually defined internet mediated domain of local governance. Relational Hyperlink Analysis is used to analyse the structural significance of the captured congestion charge. This analysis uses Social Network Analysis (SNA) and an associated statistical technique, Exponential Random Graph Modelling (ERGM) to render the network visible and understandable. To further illuminate how the network was used by local civic and institutional actors involved in the referendum the research draws upon a network ethnography approach which uses SNA to identify subjects for qualitative investigation. The study offers some evidence of the Web providing 'just enough' links in this local context to suggest the structural existence of a networked public sphere. However, further evidence from the narratives and the statistical model paint an alternative picture. This suggests that, in the main, hyperlinking behaviour and use made of the network corresponds to a 'politics as usual' scenario where cliques are more likely to proliferate and powerful economic and media interests dominate online as they do offline. If the ordinary citizen's voice is to be heard in this context then there is a requirement for policy intervention to establish a trusted local networked public sphere or online civic space, independent of vested interests but linked to the local governance decision making process. In addition to this there is a requirement for greater education, particularly aimed at senior local governance policy makers, in the culture of online engagement.