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Recent work from the U.S. has demonstrated positive effects of internet use on individuals'' levels of sociability which have in turn been linked to the development of democratic behaviors and norms. This paper extends this research by examining the links between internet use, social capital and political engagement in Australia, using data from the 2007 Australian Election Study (AES) which directly replicated questions asked in a 2005 U.S. study (Kittilson and Dalton, 2008). We first measure levels of online interpersonal contacting among Australians, dividing these into bridging and bonding associations and then assess how far such behavior links to democratic engagement in terms of promoting attitudes supportive of democratic institutions and political participation. Our findings show that online social capital and particularly the bonding version is positively associated with levels of political efficacy and active engagement. We conclude that the Australian case provides further support for the argument that the internet offers an important new platform for social group activity that in turn may be helping to foster and sustain democratic norms and activities.

On the evidence of national surveys conducted between 2000 and 2006, there is a declining sense of European self-identity in the three Slavic post-Soviet republics of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. Attitudes towards the European Union and the possibility of membership are broadly supportive, but with a substantial proportion who find it difficult to express a view, and substantial proportions are poorly informed in comparison with the general public in EU member or prospective member countries. Those who are better informed are more likely to favor EU membership and vice versa. Generally, socioeconomic characteristics (except for age and region) are relatively poor predictors of support for EU membership as compared with attitudinal variables. But Europeanness should not be seen as a given, and much will depend on whether EU member countries emphasize what is common to east and west or establish new dividing lines in place of those of the cold war.

The enlargement of the European Union will establish a new relationship between the Union and the "outsider" states that lie outside that process. Surveys in the first half of 2000 in four of these states - Belarus, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine - found that attitudes towards the Union and the prospect of their own country''s admission were generally positive. At the same time there were high levels of uncertainty, and levels of knowledge about EU institutions were very modest. Focus groups confirmed these findings, with frequent confusion between the EU and other international organizations, and considerable doubt about whether their own country was itself "European". But there was evidence that more committed democrats were more enthusiastic about the EU, and their own country''s admission; and more generally, that "Europeanness" was understood in terms of the kinds of cultural and living standards that were characteristic of EU Member States. If enlargement widens those differences, it is likely to open new divisions within a continent that had apparently been overcoming the differences that were a product of the cold war.