Agora: A Conceptual Exploration of the Link Between Social Media as Public Space, and Direct, Representative and Deliberative Democracy

The emergence of social media as a new platform for political action in the last decade had two seemingly incompatible consequences: on the one hand, it significantly reduced the costs of participation, thereby creating the premises for wider citizen engagement. On the other hand, it deepened the offline effects of the digital divide, further limiting the scope of participation among those most affected by it. Both trends have been the subject of numerous empirical studies, whose thematic and geographic variety makes it difficult to draw general theoretical conclusions on the Internet's effect on democracy. One particular issue stands out: while the online environment is now an undoubtedly powerful tool for political action, whether or not it is democratic in form and consequences needs further examination. What happens when the concept of social media as public space, with its unique characteristics, is 'injected' into more traditional definitions of democracy? In this paper I use the rather diffuse notion of digital democracy to designate political action mainly supported by social media. I argue that digital democracy shows traits specific to direct, representative, as well as deliberative democracy, but poses a particular problem: if social media is increasingly the go-to environment for high impact political action (electoral campaigns, protest, crowdsourcing legislation), then the disconnection between the online and offline levels caused by the digital divide calls into question the democratic character of digital democracy. Thus, the first objective of this paper is to map out the elements that digital democracy has in common with direct, representative and deliberative democracy. The second is to examine whether these elements are altered by characteristics of the online environment. And finally, the third is to discuss the extent to which 'democracy' remains a suitable and accurate term in the context of the digital divide.