Democracy in Times of Digitalization

Digital technologies raise major questions for democracy, as they bring both new opportunities and threats to political freedom and equality. However, while digitalization and its implications are widely theorized, this has mostly taken place in fields such as political sociology and media studies (Dahlgren 2008; Bennett/Segerberg/Knüpfer 2018). While traditional strands of democratic theory for a long time steered clear of the topic, in recent years interest has skyrocketed. Still, an overarching research agenda has yet to emerge (Bernholz/Landemore/Reich 2021; Chambers/Gastil 2021). Even less attention has been paid to digitalization in the field of International Political Theory (IPT), even though the internet, as a transnational sphere, enables new forms of political organization and of exercising political power across borders. In this Workshop, we want to examine the intersections between digital technology, democracy, and international politics, with a focus on four themes: 1 Democratic deliberation in the digital domain Digital technology has a major impact on the public spheres as forums of democratic deliberation (Seeliger et al. 2021; Habermas 2022). Initial hopes about the internet as an open and unlimited space for communicative exchange (Tufekci 2017) and for the constitution of transnational public spheres (Bohman 2004) remain unfulfilled. Key in this debate is the question of what standards for democratic deliberation are appropriate in a digital world, and which conditions are favourable to them being met (Chambers 2021). 2 Organizing democracy through digital technology How can digital technology improve democratic decision-making? While a complete transformation of mass democratic politics into e-democracy has not happened, digital technologies can help (re-) structure democratic decision-making. Also, the dynamics of digital interactions inspire new ways of thinking about democracy such as ‘open democracy’ (Landemore 2020). From an IPT perspective, there is the question whether digitalization can facilitate the emergence of transnational public spheres, or even the constitution of new demoi. 3 Democratic authority and digital technologies The fact that a given political decision was made democratically gives citizens reason to obey it. As democratic procedures distribute decision-making power equally, citizens can coordinate their actions without being in a relation of subjection to one another (Viehoff 2014). How do digital technologies help (Sparks & Jayaram 2021) or hinder (Christiano 2021) the exercise of equal political power? Does (human) democracy have a special claim to authority, or can (some) political decisions be taken algorithmically, and still be authoritative given that citizens are thereby treated equally? Do digital technologies enable the sharing of equal power across borders? 4 Democratic governance of digital infrastructure Digital infrastructure has in many ways become a public good. Yet, most of that infrastructure is held by private companies that exploit the network effects for their own growth and to preclude competition (Zuboff 2019; Oldenbourg 2022). While ideas of digital sovereignty risk authoritarian (mis-)appropriations, multi-stakeholder governance of the internet often proves toothless. What is the potential of more radical ideas, such as data-owning democracy and digital socialism (Fischli 2022; Muldoon 2022), that seek to fundamentally restructure ownership of the digital domain?