Digital Processes and Democratic Theory

 also published with Google Books (click here)

download entire book as pdf

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION, DEFINITIONS AND MODELING 11

  Introduction  11
  Three basic axes for the theoretical analysis of democracy 23

Chapter 2: EIGHT DEVELOPMENT SCENARIOS FOR DEMOCRACY IN THE INFORMATION SOCIETY  32

  Polis democracy in the information society 35

  Cyber democracy in the information society  46

  Plebiscitarian leadership democracy in the information society 52

  Big Brother democracy in the information society 58

  Economic democracy in the information society 64

  Pushbutton democracy in the information society 73

  Roman republic in the information society    81

  Deliberationware democracy in the information society  88

Chapter 3: CONCLUSIONS AND OUTLOOK  116

Hilbert, Martin (2007), “Digital Processes and Democratic Theory: Dynamics, risk and opportunities that arise when democratic institutions meet digital information and communication technologies”; peer-reviewd online publication; Google Books; http://www.martinhilbert.net/democracy.html  

Some of the ideas that originated in this book have been published in the peer-reviewed Journal article:

The Maturing Concept of e-democracy: From e-Voting and Online Consultations, to Democratic Value Out of Jumbled Online Chatter
September 2009, Journal of Information Technology & Politics (JITP), Volume 6, issue 2; American Political Science Association, p. 87-110, http://www.jitp.net.

Download an electronic version (pdf) of this article for FREE here.

"You however, students of this world, never forget that behind every technology is somebody who is using it and this some-body 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
 

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This online publication is the result of research I have mainly done during the years 2003-2006. The ideas are 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.

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