As people spend increasing proportions of their daily lives using social media, such as Twitter and Facebook, they are being invited to support myriad political causes by sharing, liking, endorsing, or downloading....

Government information systems are big business (costing over 1 per cent of GDP a year). They are critical to all aspects of public policy and governmental operations. Governments spend billions on them - for instance, the UK alone commits L14 billion a year to public sector IT operations....

Leading political scientists address the challenges faced by democracy in the 21st century. The contributors tackle the changing nature of democratic ideas, in particular equality in society and the satisfaction of citizens....