Democracy In The Digital Age

First published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Online technologies excite the public imagination with narratives of democratization. The Internet is a political medium, borne of democracy, but is it democratizing? Late modern democracies are characterized by civic apathy, public skepticism, disillusionment with politics, and general disinterest in conventional political process. And yet, public interest in blogging, online news, net-based activism, collaborative news filtering, and online networking reveal an electorate that is not disinterested, but rather, fatigued with political conventions of the mainstream. This book examines how online digital media shape and are shaped by contemporary democracies, by addressing the following issues: How do online technologies remake how we function as citizens in contemporary democracies? What happens to our understanding of public and private as digitalized democracies converge technologies, spaces and practices? How do citizens of today understand and practice their civic responsibilities, and how do they compare to citizens of the past? How do discourses of globalization, commercialization and convergence inform audience/producer, citizen/consumer, personal/political, public/private roles individuals must take on? Are resulting political behaviors atomized or collective? Is there a public sphere anymore, and if not, what model of civic engagement expresses current tendencies and tensions best? Students and scholars of media studies, political science, and critical theory will find this to be a fresh engagement with some of the most important questions facing democracies today.

Opposing Democracy in the Digital Age is about why ordinary people in a democratizing state oppose democracy and how they leverage both traditional and social media to do so. Aim Sinpeng focuses on the people behind popular, large-scale antidemocratic movements that helped bring down democracy in 2006 and 2014 in Thailand. The yellow shirts (PAD—People’s Alliance for Democracy) that are the focus of the book are antidemocratic movements grown out of democratic periods in Thailand, but became the catalyst for the country’s democratic breakdown. Why, when, and how supporters of these movements mobilize offline and online to bring down democracy are some of the key questions that Sinpeng answers. While the book primarily uses a qualitative methodological approach, it also uses several quantitative tools to analyze social media data in the later chapters. This is one of few studies in the field of regime transition that focuses on antidemocratic mobilization and takes the role of social media seriously.

Technologie und Innovation im Allgemeinen, insbesondere IT, sind heute in jeder Hinsicht wesentliche Bestandteile unserer Welt und haben Einfluss auf alle Bereiche der Gesellschaft – wirtschaftlich, rechtlich, politisch, soziologisch und auch kulturell. Diese neue Cyberwelt hat unser Leben in vielerlei Hinsicht verändert, nicht nur wenn es um demokratische Beteiligung geht. Die Digitalisierung aller Bereiche unseres Lebens revolutioniert unsere Gesellschaft: in Bezug auf unsere Freiheit wird dies nicht ohne Angst oder sogar Untergangsstimmung gesehen. PCs, Tablets und Smartphones sind wesentliche Bestandteile unseres Lebens; wir kaufen online und nehmen über elektronische Netzwerke an Debatten und Veranstaltungen teil. Wir sind so abhängig von der Nutzung elektronischer Geräte, dass man sich fragen könnte, ob wir auf dem Weg zum Cybermenschen sind. Wir haben die technischen Mittel, um in unserem Körper alle Informationen zur digitalen Identifizierung zu tragen, beispielsweise Mikrochips unter der Haut, injizierte Kennungen und verschluckte Passwörter: dies ist nicht Science-Fiction sondern Realität, wenn auch noch nicht Praxis. Der entscheidende Punkt ist die kulturelle Akzeptanz dieses neuen Lebensstils, der sich möglicherweise durchsetzen wird. Zukunftsforschung oder nicht, Tatsache ist, dass das Internet bereits einen wesentlichen Teil unseres Lebens ausmacht, sodass das deutsche Bundesverfassungsgericht mit Weitblick und Mut bereits im Januar 2013 Internetzugang als "Grundrecht" definierte: eine Aussage, die ein neues Konzept zur genaueren Definition dieses Mediums einführt. Dieses Buch soll verdeutlichen, dass sehr schnelle technologische Entwicklungen einen direkten und starken Einfluss auf das demokratische System haben. Politik, Gesetzgeber und Gesetzgebung müssen sich täglich mit dieser Thematik auseinandersetzen und neue und unbekannte Wege gehen. Technologische Innovation verändert und veränderte die Beziehung zwischen Volksvertretern und denjenigen, die sie vertreten, zwischen Politikern und ihren Wählern. Mittlerweile verändert sie auch das Parteiensystem. Betrachtet man ihren Einfluss auf Politik, Recht, Kultur und Wirtschaft, so sieht man, dass die technologische Innovation eine bedeutende Quelle der Macht in der heutigen Welt darstellt.

In light of the increased utilization of information technologies, such as social media and the ‘Internet of Things,’ this book investigates how this digital transformation process creates new challenges and opportunities for political participation, political election campaigns and political regulation of the Internet. Within the context of Western democracies and China, the contributors analyze these challenges and opportunities from three perspectives: the regulatory state, the political use of social media, and through the lens of the public sphere. The first part of the book discusses key challenges for Internet regulation, such as data protection and censorship, while the second addresses the use of social media in political communication and political elections. In turn, the third and last part highlights various opportunities offered by digital media for online civic engagement and protest in the public sphere. Drawing on different academic fields, including political science, communication science, and journalism studies, the contributors raise a number of innovative research questions and provide fascinating theoretical and empirical insights into the topic of digital transformation.

Theoretically grounded and using quantitative data spanning more than 50 years together with qualitative research, this book examines investigative journalism’s role in liberal democracies in the past and in the digital age. In its ideal form, investigative reporting provides a check on power in society and therefore can strengthen democratic accountability. The capacity is important to address now because the political and economic environment for journalism has changed substantially in recent decades. In particular, the commercialization of the Internet has disrupted the business model of traditional media outlets and the ways news content is gathered and disseminated. Despite these disruptions, this book’s central aim is to demonstrate using empirical research that investigative journalism is not in fact in decline in developed economies, as is often feared.

Whether within or beyond the confines of the state, digitalization continues to transform politics, society and democracy. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have already considerably affected political systems and structures, and no doubt they will continue to do so in the future. Adopting an international and comparative perspective, Digital Democracy in a Globalized World examines the impact of digitialization on democratic political life. It offers theoretical analyses as well as case studies to help readers appreciate the changing nature of democracy in the digital age.

**Winner of the 2019 Transmission Prize** **Longlisted for the 2019 Orwell Prize for Political Writing** ‘A superb book by one of the world’s leading experts on the digital revolution’ David Patrikarakos, Literary Review ‘This book could not have come at a better moment... The People Vs Tech makes clear that there is still time – just – for us to take back control’ - Camilla Cavendish, Sunday Times The internet was meant to set us free. Tech has radically changed the way we live our lives. But have we unwittingly handed too much away to shadowy powers behind a wall of code, all manipulated by a handful of Silicon Valley utopians, ad men, and venture capitalists? And, in light of recent data breach scandals around companies like Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, what does that mean for democracy, our delicately balanced system of government that was created long before big data, total information and artificial intelligence? In this urgent polemic, Jamie Bartlett argues that through our unquestioning embrace of big tech, the building blocks of democracy are slowly being removed. The middle class is being eroded, sovereign authority and civil society is weakened, and we citizens are losing our critical faculties, maybe even our free will. The People Vs Tech is an enthralling account of how our fragile political system is being threatened by the digital revolution. Bartlett explains that by upholding six key pillars of democracy, we can save it before it is too late. We need to become active citizens; uphold a shared democratic culture; protect free elections; promote equality; safeguard competitive and civic freedoms; and trust in a sovereign authority. This essential book shows that the stakes couldn’t be higher and that, unless we radically alter our course, democracy will join feudalism, supreme monarchies and communism as just another political experiment that quietly disappeared.