Computers in Economics, Politics, and Social Structures (continued)

Computer Politics
Candidates for national offices (and many candidates for local offices) offer websites to provide voters with a multimedia blitz meant to inform and persuade. Politicians have quickly learned to use the new tools of communication born of the IT revolution. A significant portion of the populace that cannot be effectively reached by television or radio political advertisements can be contacted via a website or an informational e-mail.

Also, citizens are now able to contact candidates and elected officials by e-mail and the World Wide Web.

Electronic Government
The United States government offers many websites as well as means to contact offices and departments by e-mail. For example, the IRS makes most tax forms available for download over the Internet, and electronic tax filing is becoming quite popular (67 million personal returns filed electronically in the first half of 2005). Government reports, statistics databases, federal grants, and much more can be accessed on the Web. Much of this information was not easily available to the general public before the advent of the Web, partly because people had to know of its existence in the first place. Web browsing and searching makes it easier to find pertinent information amid the massive amount of information produced by the U.S. federal and state governments.

Some states and municipalities are making use of online voting. In fact, when Ross Perot was a presidential candidate in 1992, he made electronic voting a key item in his campaign.

These pages were written by Jeffrey L. Nyhoff and Steven H. VanderLeest and edited by Nancy Zylstra
© 2005 Calvin University (formerly Calvin College), All Rights Reserved.

If you encounter technical errors, contact computing@calvin.edu.