Barriers to the Transformative Potential of Digital Democratic Innovations

Digital democratic innovations bring promises of transformation and improvement of the democratic processes that govern our society. Nonetheless, this potential faces barriers that are preventing its realisation. I propose to approach some of these barriers following Dryzek´s intuition that “once the basic parameters of capitalist democracy have been achieved, the state is peculiarly resistant to further democratisation” (Dryzek, 1996, p. 36). This critique of the position of the state vis a vis further democratisation is essential for the study of the transformative capabilities of democratic innovations, and yet often disregarded. In this paper, I will present an exploration of the resistance of the state to deeper democratisation by focusing on the case of digital participatory platforms developed by civic tech organisations, a type of technologies for democracy. By combining the analysis of interviews with civic tech entrepreneurs and developers from 14 organisations, of tender documents issued by public institutions, and of conversations amongst members of the Metadecidim community, I intend to identify structural barriers to the transformative potential of democratic innovations. I will pay special attention to how features of digital platforms are seen by different actors to foster democratic principles such as inclusion and equality, and how (or whether) these actors see themselves as agents for deeper democratization of the state.