Around the developing world, political leaders face a dilemma: the very information and communication technologies that boost economic fortunes also undermine power structures. Globally, one in ten internet users is a Muslim living in a populous Muslim community. In these countries, young people are developing political identities online, and digital technologies are helping civil society build systems of political communication independent of the state and beyond easy manipulation by cultural or religious elites.With unique data on patterns of media ownership and technology use, The Digital Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy demonstrates how, since the mid-1990s, information technologies have had a role in political transformation. Democratic revolutions are not caused by new information technologies. But in the Muslim world, democratization is no longer possible without them.

AcknowledgementsPrologue: Revolution in the Middle East Will be DigitizedIntroduction: Political Communication and Contemporary Muslim Media Systems1. Evolution and Revolution, Transition and Entrenchment2. Lineages of the Digital State3. Political Parties Online4. New Media & Journalism Online5. Civil Society and Systems of Political Communication6. Censorship and the Politics of Cultural ProductionConclusion: Information Technology and Democratic IslamReferencesIndex