Social Media, Political Institutions and the Principal–Agent Dilemma

Chapter 1 presents the theoretical framework of the book. It starts to discuss the transformation from the Web 1.0 to the Web 2.0 and 3.0, to investigate whether this can produce a revolution or, alternatively, politics will continue as usual. After reviewing the existing literature, this chapter proposes two different frameworks, based on the principal–agent dilemma. One focuses on the idea that social media represent a new additional ‘principal’ for politicians. The other considers them as a tool available to traditional principals. These two frameworks will be tested through the book.

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