Introduction
Much like the printing press of another era, the Internet is being used to transform our democracy. While enormous attention has been lavished on the role of the Internet in Presidential electoral politics, relatively little attention has been focused on how the Internet might transform the existing relationship between Members of Congress and their constituents. This relationship is the fundamental building block of a representative democracy, and it has come under strain with the escalating complexity of policy and the increased size of congressional districts.
Does the Internet offer opportunities to ease the strain and bring citizens closer to their Representatives in Congress? To find out, we worked with Members of Congress to conduct a series of online discussions with constituents. What we found surprised even us. By participating in a single half-hour discussion with one of their Members of Congress, constituents were more likely to:
- Increase their trust in, and approval of, the Member;
- Better understand the policy issue that was discussed;
- Change their opinion on the issue discussed to align more with the Member’s position;
- Increase their engagement in politics;
- Turn out to vote; and
- Vote for the Member.
This report provides the details of our findings from a series of online discussions conducted between 2006 and 2008. For the most part, the discussions involved Members of Congress meeting online with a small but diverse group of constituents (15-25) selected at random by a research firm. Much like rigorous drug trials, after we identified a representative sample of constituents, we randomly assigned them to either participate in a session with their Member of Congress or to participate in a control group. We surveyed all of the participants several times over the course of several months to determine changes in behavior and attitudes over time, and we found dramatic differences between those who met with their Members online and those who did not.
Constituents who participated in the online town halls with their Members were enthusiastic about the sessions. Almost all of them indicated that they would be interested in participating in such sessions again. As one constituent put it: “It was great to have a Member of Congress want to really hear the voices of the constituents.” Further, we found that when we tested the scalability of our format to a larger group of nearly 200 constituents, the positive impact of the session on participants’ behavior was similar to that experienced by participants in the smaller groups.
On the practical side, these sessions were fairly easy to run and did not require a significant amount of Members’ time or effort. The sessions took Members 30 minutes and could be conducted from any location with a reliable telephone connection. Participating Members also found these interactions useful. As one Representative stated, “I thoroughly enjoyed being able to engage with my constituents on the topic of immigration and learned a lot from the session.”
Our conclusion is that online sessions like those we facilitated offer a powerful tool for strengthening the relationship between Members and their constituents, for fostering increased citizen engagement with politics and policy, and for enabling a deeper policy discourse in the public, more generally.
Additional Information
Download the handouts from the briefing: 
othm-briefing-handouts (1.1 MB)
Download the entire report: Online-Town-Hall-Meetings (1.0 MB)
39 pages
Copyright 2009 by the Congressional Management Foundation
ISBN: 1-930473-12-5
