The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on the Future of Democracy: Can AI-Powered Participatory Processes "Renew the Contract"?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to transform roles in political representation and the expression of citizens’ preferences. In this paper, we explore the impact of generative AI on the future of democracy and in particular on the potential boost participatory democracy can receive in the future using these tools. We focus on interactions of citizens with democratically-based public legislative and administrative bodies at multiple levels of government as citizens exercise their active (ballots) and passive voting rights, the rights to participate in an election as a voter and the right to stand as a candidate. The main questions addressed in this paper are: ▪️ What are possible trajectories of European democracy with regard to citizen participation and influence in governmental policy making and implementation and what potential does participatory democracy have in this development? ▪️ Can AI boost democracy through a more extensive or more effective involvement of citizens? ▪️ What tools exist by now which can support citizens in their participation processes? ▪️ What can different stakeholders in democratic systems do to sustain their agency within systems using generative AI?