Mary Francoli and I have published a chapter titled "Permanent Campaigning and Digital Government" in Permanent Campaigning in Canada, a new collection published by UBC Press and edited by Alex Marland, Thierry Giasson and Anna Lennox Esselment.

Our chapter explores competing narratives of digital government reform. On the one hand, authors have argued that the digital age will bring forth a more open, participatory model of government. On the other hand, narratives of permanent campaigning and New Political Governance assume that in the digital age, social media and the 24/7 news cycle lead to a more opaque model of government, in which public servants withhold information, engage in branding campaigns and betray their commitment to the principle of neutrality at the heart of the Westminster model. Our chapter looks at the effects the digital age has had on the federal government of Canada to test these narratives. We argue that each theory is part right, part wrong, and conclude that theorists of digital government and permanent campaigning must do a better job of contending with each other's propositions in future research.