You’ve Got (No) Mail: How Parties and Candidates Respond to Email Inquiries in Western Democracies

Although email is one of the most popular components of users’ experience of the internet, its use by political actors in campaigns has rarely been studied. In this article, I explore political actors’ responsiveness to emails coming from citizens through a large-scale, longitudinal study of 194 parties and candidates in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom, and United States between 2007 and 2013. In order to assess political actors’ email responsiveness, two fictitious emails were sent to each of them: one requesting issue information, the other pledging to be willing to volunteer. Results show that most parties and candidates fail to respond to both emails, and that progressive parties tend to respond more than conservative ones.