China, Cuba, and the Internet Counterrevolution

[David Goldstein <goldstein_david@yahoo.com.au>]

China, Cuba, and the Internet Counterrevolution (news release)

              New Working Paper Challenges Assumption that the

                     Internet Defies Authoritarian Control

A new Carnegie Endowment working paper finds that, contrary to
conventional wisdom, the Internet does not necessarily spell the
demise of authoritarian rule. Examining the cases of China and Cuba,
Shanthi Kalathil and Taylor C. Boas, two Carnegie information
revolution experts, show that authoritarian regimes can actually
maintain control over the Internet's political impact and benefit
from the technology. Read the full text at: http://www.ceip.org/pubs.

              The Internet and State Control in Authoritarian
Regimes: 

                      China, Cuba, and the Counterrevolution

              Working Paper No. 21, by Shanthi Kalathil and Taylor C.
Boas

Cuba and China represent two extremes of authoritarian Internet
control: Cuba has sought to limit the medium's political effects by
carefully circumscribing access to the Internet, while China has
promoted widespread access and relied on content filtering,
monitoring, deterrence, and self-censorship. These choices of
strategy reflect a more fundamental difference between the two
regimes' levels of economic liberalization. China has promoted
widespread Internet access to capitalize on the economic potential of
a booming information sector and technologically savvy workforce,
while Cuba, less committed to a market economy, has been willing to
forgo some of the Internet's potential economic benefits. 

Kalathil and Boas show that China and Cuba, despite their strategy
differences, have effectively limited use of the Internet to
challenge the government. Beijing, for instance, has responded
harshly to the Falun Gong's use of the Internet with a series of
technological measures, restrictive laws, and well-publicized
crackdowns, making it more difficult for followers to communicate.
Havana has carefully meted out access among civil society
organizations according to their political orientation while
dissident and human rights organizations have little hope of even
gaining access. Both governments have also been successful in making
extensive use of the Internet as a propaganda tool, partly by setting
up their own web sites to disseminate the official government line. 

In a field where scholarly work has only begun to tread, this working
paper sets out a framework for analyzing the Internet strategies of
different authoritarian regimes, and helps to shed light on the
impact of the Internet on authoritarian rule in general. 

Shanthi Kalathil, associate in the Information Revolution and World
Politics Project at the Carnegie Endowment, has written extensively
on Chinese market reforms and the political impact of the information
revolution.

Taylor C. Boas, project associate in the Information Revolution and
World Politics Project, has published several articles on the impact
of the Internet in authoritarian regimes, with particular emphasis on
Cuba.

See http://www.ceip.org/files/Publications/wp21.asp or
http://www.ceip.org/pubs for more information and the report.

=====
David Goldstein
2/3 Belmont Ave, Glen Iris 3146, Australia
email: Goldstein_David@yahoo.com.au
phone: +61 3 9885 0601 (home)
       +61 418 228 605 (mobile)

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