The appropriation of e-mail and the Internet by members of the Swiss Parliament

Issue title: Use of ICT by Members of Parliament

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Chappelet, Jean-Loup^a

Affiliations: [a] IDHEAP Swiss Graduate School of Public Administration, 21 Route de la Maladière, CH-1022 Chavannes-Lausanne, Switzerland. E-mail: Jean-Loup.Chappelet@idheap.unil.ch | University of Copenhagen, Denmark | Oxford Internet Institute, UK | University of Klagenfurt, Austria | I.S.C.T.E., Lisbon, Portugal

Abstract: As with the rest of Swiss society, the use of e-mail and the Internet by members of the Swiss Parliament dates back to the mid 1990s. This paper studies the appropriation of these two new information and communication technologies by Swiss MPs a few years later, at the beginning of the 21st century when most Swiss MPs published their e-mail addresses on the parliament website. The study is based on an Internet questionnaire that surveyed both the MPs' use and opinions of the Internet and e-mail in their political and "civilian" lives. Further to the analysis of raw data, differences in appropriation are displayed in relation to socio-cultural and demographic variables. These findings could be of interest to larger countries than Switzerland which share one of its languages and cultures.

DOI: 10.3233/IP-2004-0046

Journal: Information Polity, vol. 9, no. 1-2, pp. 89-102, 2004