Party competition on the Internet in the United States and Britain

This article examines the prominence of Web sites of major and minor partie s in the United States and the United Kingdom, comparing features such as s earch capabilities, membership forms, information on party organization and issues, characteristics of graphics, and currency of updates as well as th eir relative quality and sophistication. We also look at the prominence of major and minor parties in newspapers and magazines and in various search e ngines and sites for political junkies. We find that minor parties have a g reater presence on the Web in the United Kingdom than in the United States, but even so, the sites of major parties in both countries are more promine nt and sophisticated than those of minor parties, and major parties general ly receive more media coverage than minor parties, both on-line and off-lin e. The data suggest that the established interests dominating most of the c ommunications, transactions, elections, and political professes of advanced industrialized countries are extending their influence to these processes in cyberspace.