Digital Processes and democratic theory – Martin Hilbert, all rights reserved, open-access online publication, http://www.martinhilbert.net/democracy.html DIGITALDIGITAL PROCESSESPROCESSES ANDAND DEMOCRATICDEMOCRATIC THTHEEORY:ORY: Dynamics, risks and opportunities that arise when democratic institutions meet digital information and communication technologies Martin Hilbert, Dr. rer. pol. Please cite this online publication as: Hilbert, Martin (2007), “Digital Processes and Democratic Theory: Dynamics, risk and opportunities when democratic institutions meet digital information and communication technologies”, peer-reviewd online publication; http://www.martinhilbert.net/democracy.html 1 Digital Processes and democratic theory – Martin Hilbert, all rights reserved, open-access online publication, http://www.martinhilbert.net/democracy.html About this publication: This online publication is the result of research I have mainly done during the years 2003-2006. Most of it is based on my 303-page long German doctor thesis (published February 2007; “Digitalisierung demokratischer Prozesse. Gefahren und Chancen der Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologie in der demokratischen Willensbildung der Informationsgesellschaft“; Beiträge zur Politischen Wissenschaft, Band 144, Duncker & Humbolt Berlin, Politikwissenschaften). I sporadically added to the text, but the ongoing evolution of the topic would require a non-stop real-time effort. The main literature remains from pre-2006. I decided to publish the text online to facilitate access and its diffusion. The topic is as dynamic as it is relevant to a wide spectrum of scholars. I hope this online publication contributes to the deepening of our understanding of democratic processes in the digital age. The fact that this text is openly accessible on the Internet does not mean it has not been peer-reviewd. I would like to thank Prof. Karl Albrecht Schachtschneider for the guidance throughout this research, and him and Prof. Wolfram Reiß from the University Friedrich-Alexander in Erlangen-Nurenberg for the peer-review and the extensive comments on previous versions of this text. I also thank Prof. Jorge Katz from the University of Chile for the inspiring comments and the final review of the entire English version. 2 Digital Processes and democratic theory – Martin Hilbert, all rights reserved, open-access online publication, http://www.martinhilbert.net/democracy.html "You however, students of this world, never forget that behind every technology is somebody who is using it and this somebody is a society... And that technology is a weapon, and whoever feels that the world is not as perfect as it should be, should fight, so that the weapon of technology is used to the benefit of society... every technology should be used to the benefit of the greatest number of people so that we can build the society of the future, no matter what name it may be given" ERNESTO (Che) GUEVARA DE LA SERNA 29 August, 1963 Closing address to the International Meeting of Architect Students 1963. 3 Digital Processes and democratic theory – Martin Hilbert, all rights reserved, open-access online publication, http://www.martinhilbert.net/democracy.html SUMMARY ................................................................................................................................... 6 Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION, DEFINITIONS AND MODELING ........................................... 12 Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 12 The Democratic Principle....................................................................................................... 15 On information and communication technologies ................................................................. 17 On the transition phase towards the information society ....................................................... 21 Three basic axes for the theoretical analysis of democracy ................................................... 24 WHO is involved in identifying the truth and determining the law?................................. 24 HOW flexible are democratic powers? .............................................................................. 26 WHAT kind of citizenship is pursued by the underlying social contract?......................... 29 Chapter 2: EIGHT DEVELOPMENT SCENARIOS FOR DEMOCRACY IN THE INFORMATION SOCIETY ........................................................................................................ 33 Polis democracy in the information society ........................................................................... 36 Theoretical foundations of polis democracy ...................................................................... 36 Development of polis democracy in the information society ............................................ 38 Consequences of the development of polis democracy ..................................................... 41 Cyber democracy in the information society ......................................................................... 47 Theoretical foundations of cyber democracy ..................................................................... 47 Development of cyber democracy in the information society ........................................... 49 Consequences of the development of cyber democracy .................................................... 51 Plebiscitarian leadership democracy in the information society............................................ 53 Theoretical foundations of plebiscitarian leadership democracy....................................... 53 Development of plebiscitarian leadership democracy in the information society ............. 55 Consequences of the development of plebiscitarian leadership democracy ...................... 57 Big Brother democracy in the information society ................................................................ 59 Theoretical foundations of Big Brother democracy........................................................... 59 Development of Big Brother democracy in the information society ................................. 61 Consequences of the development of Big Brother democracy .......................................... 63 Economic democracy in the information society................................................................... 65 Theoretical foundations of economic democracy .............................................................. 65 Development of economic democracy in the information society..................................... 67 Consequences of the development economic democracy .................................................. 69 Pushbutton democracy in the information society ................................................................. 74 Theoretical foundations of pushbutton democracy ............................................................ 74 Development of pushbutton democracy in the information society .................................. 76 Consequences of the development of pushbutton democracy ........................................... 79 4 Digital Processes and democratic theory – Martin Hilbert, all rights reserved, open-access online publication, http://www.martinhilbert.net/democracy.html Roman republic in the information society............................................................................ 82 Theoretical foundations of the Roman republic................................................................. 82 Development of the Roman republic in the information society ....................................... 84 Consequences of the development of the Roman republic ................................................ 87 Deliberationware democracy in the information society ....................................................... 89 Theoretical foundations of deliberationware democracy ................................................... 89 Development of deliberationware democracy in the information society ......................... 91 Information structuring as fine adjustment between prose and yes/no.......................... 93 Artificial intelligence for ensuring the value neutrality of the system ......................... 100 Negotiation- and social-choice methods for the intermediation of the common will .. 106 An example of deliberationware-democratic intermediation of the common will ....... 112 Consequences of the development of deliberationware democracy ................................ 116 Chapter 3: CONCLUSIONS AND OUTLOOK........................................................................ 118 Minority rights and privacy issues call for a strict rule of law......................................... 120 Digital will formation challenges the party system and interactive mass media ............. 122 The digital divide hinders the creation of the digital public sphere ................................. 125 The borders between direct and representative democracy are blurring.......................... 127 ICT applications do not automatically fit democratic ideals............................................ 130 Author's remarks: Italic or bold emphases in original quotations have been modified where necessary so that they fit the flow of the text. Text in square brackets [...] has been added to for grammatical reasons. Comments by the author are shown by square brackets and a reference […, author's addition]. 5 Digital Processes and democratic theory – Martin Hilbert, all rights reserved,