Democracy Beyond Borders: Is the Universal Aspect of Digital Democracy Science Fiction?

Finally, in the digital age, information communication technologies (ICT) make our dreams come true! Democratic participation through ICT and the internet have shacked the world in the past years. ICT toppled regimes, increased transparency and allowed those who have been marginalized, discriminated and excluded before to be part of an inclusive democratic processes - so the general perception. ICT is seen the chance to enable democratic principles to come to the fore as universal identity and value by digital means. This identity builds on a non-bias, non-racist equal opportunity world in which human rights and political participation are the benchmarks for democracy instead of income, mobility or education. However, in this paper the authors will argue, that digital democracy enabled by ICT has an ambivalent effect – as all progress through technological development has. Specifically, we make the point, that no technology will automatically provide solution for sociopolitical issues but will always work against the background of or aggravate existing (governance) structures. Core principles of good and hence bad governance (level of accountability, responsiveness, transparency and inclusive participation) thus apply to both the online and the offline world. Thus, on the one hand, new possibilities of participatory standards within the concept of liquid democracy and multi-stakeholder approaches have emphasized democracy and modernization theories and has led to a factual rise in the desire to establish democratic decision-making processes around the world. ICT and digital democracy awaken desires and expectation of a universal democratic identity being finally realize. But on the other hand, these expectations are challenged by many setbacks which apply to the developed world the same as to the developing world. The internet offers far-reaching opportunities for everyone to express their own will, but also creates filter bubbles, enables manipulative voter targeting and offers ways to mobilize the masses. New forms of digital technology provide both democratic and non-democratic regimes with tools for digital surveillance what Manuel Castells calls the “global surveillance bureaucracy”. Where existing power structures are in danger, digital spying on citizens, restricted internet access and internet-shutdowns are the consequence. The often portrayed in the science fiction world in novels and movies has longed set the signals for the fact that not alone technology makes the difference but the way to govern. Digital democracy has the potential to affect leadership and decision-making, but, as we argue and give examples for, the core principles of governance remain the same. In this context, it is interesting to note that also in the science-fiction genre of authors including Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke or Joe Haldeman we merely find the same ambivalence: even though in this genre new ways of governance through new technologies are thinkable, it often enough merely projects current concerns and problematics into a future world to make them more visible. Against this backdrop, the authors will compare fictional science with current debates on governance in a digital age and the struggle in which ICT are used at the same time to fight democratic desires back.