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nonetheless use the technology to promote greater accountability in the exercise of political
power.
In the first section of the paper I address the early claims about an inherently liberal
Internet, showing how such arguments rest upon a misconceived notion of the nature of Internet
architecture and the means by which governments can exert control over its use. In its early days,
the Internet was difficult to control at a centralized level; indeed, it was specifically designed this
way by its early engineers. It is often further assumed that the control-frustrating nature of the
early Internet is locked into place as the technology diffuses around the globe. I argue, however,
that the logic of Internet diffusion actually gives this technology great flexibility to be modified
in new environments, allowing authoritarian regimes to embed control-facilitating technological
features into the portions of the global Internet that fall within their borders.
While most authoritarian regimes have exploited the flexibility of Internet technology to
implement technological measures of control, determined users have almost always found ways
to circumvent these barriers. In the second section of the paper, therefore, I distinguish between
perfect and effective control—the former being what matters in the individualistic, libertarian
viewpoint, but the latter being what authoritarian regimes actually pursue. It is in establishing
effective control over Internet use that non-technological constraints on behavior—law, social
norms, and the market—come most clearly into play. By manipulating the architecture of a
flexible technology, and by leveraging the legal system, social norms, and market conditions in
ways that supplement these architectural constraints, the leaders of authoritarian regimes can
exert control over the use of a supposedly control-frustrating technology.
In the paper’s third section I turn to the question of Internet use in the reform of public
administration in authoritarian regimes. As a technology that can be used to promote
Convention