IT in the Political Process

The first major discontinuity in modern politics was introduced by the advent
of television; televised debates to be precise. Although Scotsman John Logie
Baird first transmitted television signals on 2nd October 1925, and licensed
commercial broadcasting began in the United States from the early 40s, it was
only in the 60s that politics discovered television as a medium of public
communication. Till then, a politician was someone that one read about
regularly, and occasionally heard, but rarely met one-on-one. Television brought
politics to the drawing room and showed politicians at close quarters, goose
pimples and all. The 1960 US presidential election was a landmark as far as
television-based political communication goes. The contestants were Richard
Nixon of the Republican Party and John F Kennedy of the Democratic Party.

The television became the chief medium of reaching out, and successful
performance on the studio floor became de rigueur for politicians. Currently,
another major discontinuity seems to be emerging over the political firmament.
And that discontinuity is being caused by information technology. If the first
half of the 20th century was dominated by the mass media, and the second half by
what is called the electronic media, then what we are seeing is the dawn of what
is being termed as the new media. A clutch of new technologiesthe Internet,
mobile telephony, CD-ROMs, electronic kiosks, etcare redefining the whole
tenets of communication. And, in the process, impacting the political process as
well! At least in the developed countries of the West, IT has brought about a
tremendous change in the transparency, urgency and responsiveness in the way
politics is conducted. Factoring in the time lag in the adoption of technologies
between the West and India, there is a fairly good chance that IT would play a
significant role in Indian politics as well.

IT in Indian Politics

Or would it? I am given three reasons why IT does not make sense in the
Indian political context:

• In a country like ours where a vast majority of our people do not even get
  electricity for the greater part of their waking hours, not to talk of the
  levels of literacy, it would be too much to expect the average citizen to use
  any IT tool. What has the aam aadmi got to do with it?
• For many others, tutored in the extreme utilitarian school of thought, the
  first question in a discussion on IT and politics is: Will it get us votes?
  Can it help us win elections? Unless one is ready with a straight yes for an
  answer, the discussion runs the danger of being snapped straightaway.
• For many others not connected directly with the political process, the
  images of the Indian politician and IT are so disconnected as to provoke
  downright derision, if not indifference. New media does not go with old
  politicians, they say.

To my mind, all these arguments reek of extreme prejudice and ignorance. Part
of the problem is of course the whole image of IT itself. The visuals associated
with this wordof smart western-attired, English-speaking, professionals
hunched over computer terminals in swanky glass buildingsare so remote from the
heat and dust and sound of mofussil India that one is tempted to go along with
the popular opinion.

But if for a minute we are willing to suspend our disbelief about a
globalizing India and a stuck-in-time Bharat, get out of the utilitarian mode of
seeking a direct correlation between financial input and electoral output, and
think about politics as a process and political parties as organizations, then
maybe we can get into some sort of a comfort zone that makes serious discussion
possible. Yet should one still stick to the kya vote milega? point of view, here
are some encouraging words from researchers.

Analysing the Australian 2004 elections, Rachel Gibson and Ian McAllister of
the Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University found
that the Web is a major vote generator for candidates and has the potential in
closely fought contests to determine the election outcome. Even if one were to
discard the above evidence as foreign, one could still consider the success
story of ITCs e-Choupal project, Karnatakas Bhoomi project, and hundreds of
other e-Governance projects, where the end-user and beneficiary have been the
nameless faceless mofussil janta. This should be proof enough that IT too could
be used to connect to the masses.

But to study IT in a political context, let us first understand (a) what
political parties do, and (b) how political parties all over the world, and
specially in the West, are using the tools of IT.

Role of Political Parties

The role of political parties is to mobilize the citizenry, organize them
into units from the grassroots-level upwards, agitate on issues, fight
elections, and finally get elected to run governments. And doing all the things
listed above require political parties to engage in a great deal of reaching
out and relationship management.

Students of management are invariably taught CRM (Customer Relationship
Management), the basic tenet being that it is far more difficult to acquire a
customer than maintain one. Therefore it is in ones interest to maintain
customer relationships. Now replace customer by the word voter, and see if the
dictum still holds. Most politicians, particularly the practitioners of vote
back politics, appreciate this fact. But what they do not usually appreciate is
that technology can make their life so much easier.

Politicians in the West have been far better in embracing the benefits of
technology. Of course it helps that technological penetration is far higher in
their societies and, due to the higher rates of literacy, adoption easier.

Internet to Mobile

As broadband made its way into homes, political websites started getting
sophisticated. From providing mere web-based information, websites started
featuring progressively interactive tools like bulletin boards, guest books,
mailing lists, chat engines, blogs, RSS etc.

As online campaigns got more sophisticated, it was only a matter of time
before somebody took campaigns mobile. Although the first commercial cellular
network was launched in Japan by NTT in 1979, modern-day (2nd generation) mobile
telephony grew only in the early 1990s, almost paralleling the growth of the
World Wide Web. Till then (1st generation) mobile phones were bulky units, the
size of bricks, and were meant primarily for permanent installation in cars. As
mobile phones really became mobile, telemarketers took off, and politicians
soon discovered its virtues. Then SMS (short messaging service) happened.

What makes mobile a medium of choice for campaigners is its pervasive nature.
A mobile phone is probably the only device most of us carry with us most of our
waking hours, and we check it all so often.

The current jousting for the 2008 US Presidential elections has seen
candidates turn to mobile-based technology in a big way. The first off the mark
was John Edwards. As a part of the fundraising initiative, people who signed up
in support of the campaign got a message directing them to a voicemail message
from Edwards urging them to make a contribution to the campaign. The Hillary
Clinton Campaign used a mobile software whereby users could SMS the word Join
to a number, 77007, and in turn receive regular updates about the campaign.
Trying to be a step ahead, Barack Obama set up a two-way text messaging service
where people could text questions to the campaign and receive answers in reply.

Data Analysis

Political parties havent limited themselves only to reaching out to voters
and other stakeholders, but have also used IT in a big way at the backend. A
classic case is the use of data warehousing and data mining technologies by the
US Democratic Party in the successful 2006 mid-term elections. To explain the
terms, data warehousing is an advanced methodanalysing, extracting,
classifying, categorisingof storing data in a way that it makes sense from the
long-term point of view.

The Next Frontier

Websiteblogsmobilethere is no quite saying what would be the next big
technology thing, and what would be picked up by campaign strategists in search
of that elusive vote. But whatever be it, two important lessons remain. First,
one must not miss the woods for the trees. It is easy to get dazzled by
technology, but the fact remains that no technology can replace the human touch.
And at the end of the day, the relationship between a leader and a party worker,
between a representative and his voters, needs to remain personal. Secondly, the
message needs to have precedence over the medium. It has always been that way,
and needs to remain so.

Having said this, I also feel it necessary to say that our political class
needs to open its eyes to the benefits of technology. If the corporate sector
can reap business benefit by becoming the early adopters of technology, what
stops us from reaping electoral benefits?s

Prodyut Bora

maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in