Online Presence of the Members of the Turkish Parliament

Abstract

Increasing technology use opens up new channels of political interaction. Reviews of Turkish e-democracy literature show that research on technology use in the Turkish legislature is insufficient. This chapter addresses this gap and contributes to the e-government and e-democracy literatures by examining and evaluating the content of the personal web sites of the members of the Turkish Parliament. The findings show that MP web site presence in Turkey is still in its infancy. The potential of e-democracy through the use of MP websites are hindered by the same factors that limit the practice of democratic practices and participation in Turkey, such as the absence of a culture of citizenship with direct demands for being a part of the political process. Findings on MP website use also have implications on the development of e-democracy in Turkey.