Beyond Vox Pop Democracy: Democratic Deliberation and Leadership in the Age of the Internet

Nicholas Gruen

“In 1981 a young political junkie with progressive sympathies, Joe Trippi, joined the campaign to make Tom Bradley governor of California, and so the first black governor in US history. An alumnus of San Jose University,Trippi had taken in the ‘vibe’ of the incipient Silicon Valley. He suggested using a computer to help track voters and manage the campaign. Costing $17,000 with 1.5 megabytes of memory, it may have been the first computer used for political campaigning. The newfound efficiency of the campaign brought the campaign face to face with the ‘bittersweet’ trade-offs between ends and means that are the daily bread politics …”