The Information Game In Democracy

This book examines democracy and governance from the unconventional and largely under researched vantage point of information. It looks at the exclusionary informational dynamics in democracy and analyses the role of information capitalism, new technology, virtual networks, cyberspace and media. While emphasizing the foundational value of information as the ‘source code’ of modern societies the book explains how it is strategically maneuvered in technologies of governance in so-called established and credible democracies. It studies the neutralization and subversion as well as the complex, nuanced and multidimensional act of othering of people, who are supposed to be the repository of power in democracy and in whose interest the business of governance is expected to be conducted. The work highlights the challenges of technocratic interpretations, stunted public policy communication, hyped information society, cooption through the state-of-the-art capitalism, rhetoric of virtual networks and the often-unilateral agenda of mainstream media. A major intervention in understanding the nature of contemporary democracy and polity, this volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of politics, media, political communication and technology studies.

This book explores the challenges that disinformation, fake news, and post-truth politics pose to democracy from a multidisciplinary perspective. The authors analyse and interpret how the use of technology and social media as well as the emergence of new political narratives has been progressively changing the information landscape, undermining some of the pillars of democracy. The volume sheds light on some topical questions connected to fake news, thereby contributing to a fuller understanding of its impact on democracy. In the Introduction, the editors offer some orientating definitions of post-truth politics, building a theoretical framework where various different aspects of fake news can be understood. The book is then divided into three parts: Part I helps to contextualise the phenomena investigated, offering definitions and discussing key concepts as well as aspects linked to the manipulation of information systems, especially considering its reverberation on democracy. Part II considers the phenomena of disinformation, fake news, and post-truth politics in the context of Russia, which emerges as a laboratory where the phases of creation and diffusion of fake news can be broken down and analysed; consequently, Part II also reflects on the ways to counteract disinformation and fake news. Part III moves from case studies in Western and Central Europe to reflect on the methodological difficulty of investigating disinformation, as well as tackling the very delicate question of detection, combat, and prevention of fake news. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of political science, law, political philosophy, journalism, media studies, and computer science, since it provides a multidisciplinary approach to the analysis of post-truth politics.

The information society is upon us and with it comes the constant barrage of information accessible wherever, whenever. This book explores the role of knowledge (or lack thereof) prevalent in society, and investigates the dangers lurking in information technology and democracy as a whole. Information is a condition for a robust democracy; people should vote based on sound information. But sound information doesn’t come easy and without labor. It must be properly handled and formatted before it is useful for deliberation, decision and action. In the information age, understanding the means by which information is processed becomes a crucial democratic instrument for the individual as well as the group. With points of departure in philosophy, social psychology, economics, and choice- and game theory, Infostorms shows how information may be used to improve the quality of personal decision and group thinking but also warns against the informational pitfalls which modern information technology may amplify. Covering topics including the continued war efforts, the social media success, polarization in politics, stock, science or opinion bubbles this book’s broad approach offers an excellent overview on information (technology) and valuable guidance on how to take information punches. ”This book should be read by everyone interested in network formation and researchers interested in decision making behavior.” - Robert A. Becker, Professor of Economics, Indiana University, Bloomington “The result is a showpiece of socially responsible fundamental science.” - Johan van Benthem , Professor of Logic and Philosophy, University of Amsterdam & Stanford University “Drawing on many different disciplines and traditions, Infostorms offers an analysis of these forces that is indispensable for everyone who is invested, as we all should be, in the value and the future of democracy.” - Philip Pettit, L.S. Rockefeller University Professor of Politics and Human Values, Princeton University; University Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, Australian National University

Knowledge democracy is an emerging concept that addresses the relationships between knowledge production and dissemination, as well as the functions of the media and democratic institutions. Although democracy has been the most successful concept of governance for societies for the last two centuries, representative democracy, which became the hallmark of advanced nation-states, seems to be in decline. Media politics is an important factor in the downfall of the original meaning of representation, yet more direct forms of democracy have not yet found an institutional embedding. Further, the Internet has also drastically changed the rules of the game, and a better educated public has broad access to information, selects for itself which types to examine, and ignores media filters. Some citizens have even become "media" themselves. In a time where the political agendas are filled with combatting so-called evils, new designs for the relationships between science, politics and media are needed. This book outlines the challenges entailed in pursuing a vital knowledge democracy.

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.

In a ground-breaking series of articles, one of them written by a Nobel Laureate, this volume demonstrates the evolutionary dynamic and the transformation of today's democratic societies into scientific-democratic societies. It highlights the progress of modeling individual and societal evaluation by neo-Bayesian utility theory. It shows how social learning and collective opinion formation work, and how democracies cope with randomness caused by randomizers. Nonlinear `evolution equations' and serial stochastic matrices of evolutionary game theory allow us to optimally compute possible serial evolutionary solutions of societal conflicts. But in democracies progress can be defined as any positive, gradual, innovative and creative change of culturally used, transmitted and stored mentifacts (models, theories), sociofacts (customs, opinions), artifacts and technifacts, within and across generations. The most important changes are caused, besides randomness, by conflict solutions and their realizations by citizens who follow democratic laws. These laws correspond to the extended Pareto principle, a supreme, socioethical democratic rule. According to this principle, progress is any increase in the individual and collective welfare which is achieved during any evolutionary progress. Central to evolutionary modeling is the criterion of the empirical realization of computed solutions. Applied to serial conflict solutions (decisions), evolutionary trajectories are formed; they become the most influential causal attractors of the channeling of societal evolution. Democratic constitutions, legal systems etc., store all advantageous, present and past, adaptive, competitive, cooperative and collective solutions and their rules; they have been accepted by majority votes. Societal laws are codes of statutes (default or statistical rules), and they serve to optimally solve societal conflicts, in analogy to game theoretical models or to statistical decision theory. Such solutions become necessary when we face harmful or advantageous random events always lurking at the edge of societal and external chaos. The evolutionary theory of societal evolution in democracies presents a new type of stochastic theory; it is based on default rules and stresses realization. The rules represent the change of our democracies into information, science and technology-based societies; they will revolutionize social sciences, especially economics. Their methods have already found their way into neural brain physiology and research into intelligence. In this book, neural activity and the creativity of human thinking are no longer regarded as linear-deductive. Only evolutive nonlinear thinking can include multiple causal choices by many individuals and the risks of internal and external randomness; this serves the increasing welfare of all individuals and society as a whole. Evolution and Progress in Democracies is relevant for social scientists, economists, evolution theorists, statisticians, philosophers, philosophers of science, and interdisciplinary researchers.

Nested Games of External Democracy Promotion develops a game theoretic model that explains how an external actor influences the strategic interaction between an authoritarian regime and a democratic opposition. In a multiple arena approach, the confrontation between regime and opposition on the domestic level is nested inside a game on the international level, at which the regime is simultaneously entangled with a democracy promotion actor. As a case study, the book formally reconstructs how United States democracy assistance influenced the Polish liberalization process between 1980 and 1989. The process tracing of its causal mechanisms is extensive and builds on data previously not recorded. With regard to Cold War history, new light is brought into U.S. American policies and strategies behind the Iron Curtain.

"This book presents a vital compendium of research detailing the latest case studies, architectures, frameworks, methodologies, and research on Digital Democracy"--Provided by publisher.