Nearly every big city in America has an official website, and mid-size towns are finding a use for them too (the official homepage of East Lyme, Connecticut features zoning regulations and the tagline "Commitment to Quality Living in a Beautiful Town"). On countless message boards and web logs, local, national and international politics are hotly debated, and Howard Dean's surprising presidential campaign has demonstrated how to turn on-line enthusiasm into real money and flesh-and-blood supporters. The phenomenon of "electronic democracy" seems to hold the potential, perhaps more so than any previous form of communications network or political community, to promote and enhance real engagement and action among the world's citizenry.

What are the real opportunities and challenges most likely to arise from this on-line democracy? Does the medium really hold the potential to revitalize and redefine democracy?

Taking a multidisciplinary approach that they identify as a "cyber-realist research agenda," the contributors examine the prospects for electronic democracy in terms of its form and practice - while avoiding the pitfall of treating the benefits of electronic democracy as being self-evident. The debates question what electronic democracy needs to accomplish in order to revitalize democracy, and what the current state of electronic democracy can teach us about the challenges and opportunities for implementing democratic technology initiatives.

Ultimately, the contributors argue for a complex, multi-disciplinary approach to the theory behind the workings of e-democracy, as well as to the future development and expansion of technological initiatives to promote on-line democracy.