PANEL 15 / DEMOCRATIC INNOVATIONS IN THE DIGITAL AGE
CONVENOR: ALEXANDRU VOLACU
All enquiries about the panel should be sent to [email protected].
Political scientists broadly share the view that we are currently experiencing a period of democratic decline at the global level (Nord et al. 2025). The widespread erosion of democracy is accompanied, and likely to some extent generated, by persistent global trends of increasing democratic dissatisfaction and decreasing trust in representative institutions (Foa et al. 2020; Valgarðsson et al. 2025). At the same time, digitalization and the ubiquity of digital media in contemporary societies have given further reasons of concern when it comes to the health of democracies, as they have often been considered to contribute to these trends, by amplifying the decline in political trust, increasing populism and growing polarization (Lorenz-Spreen et al. 2023). Still, digital technologies could also work in the other way, by opening up novel democratic opportunities, as they “allow us to think and invent institutions beyond the dichotomy of the voter and the elected representative, including at scale. They might even one day allow us to reimagine the possibility of true mass deliberation” (Landemore 2021: 84). Either way, systematic explorations of digitalization through the lens of democratic theory are increasingly pressing but, with a few exceptions, largely missing (Bernholz et al. 2021: 3-7).
The aim of the panel is to contribute to this emerging, yet infant, literature, by studying various aspects of the kinds of democratic innovations that seek tap into the digital environment in order to enhance citizen participation and improve democratic quality, i.e. digital democratic innovations (Mikhaylovskaya and Rouméas 2024). Within this research area, the papers will focus on a range of digital tools, such as platforms for democratic decision-making, e-voting systems, and AI-integrated deliberative platforms, as well as a range of normative principles and features, such as inclusiveness, electoral simultaneity, and deliberative quality.
All enquiries about the panel should be sent to [email protected].
Political scientists broadly share the view that we are currently experiencing a period of democratic decline at the global level (Nord et al. 2025). The widespread erosion of democracy is accompanied, and likely to some extent generated, by persistent global trends of increasing democratic dissatisfaction and decreasing trust in representative institutions (Foa et al. 2020; Valgarðsson et al. 2025). At the same time, digitalization and the ubiquity of digital media in contemporary societies have given further reasons of concern when it comes to the health of democracies, as they have often been considered to contribute to these trends, by amplifying the decline in political trust, increasing populism and growing polarization (Lorenz-Spreen et al. 2023). Still, digital technologies could also work in the other way, by opening up novel democratic opportunities, as they “allow us to think and invent institutions beyond the dichotomy of the voter and the elected representative, including at scale. They might even one day allow us to reimagine the possibility of true mass deliberation” (Landemore 2021: 84). Either way, systematic explorations of digitalization through the lens of democratic theory are increasingly pressing but, with a few exceptions, largely missing (Bernholz et al. 2021: 3-7).
The aim of the panel is to contribute to this emerging, yet infant, literature, by studying various aspects of the kinds of democratic innovations that seek tap into the digital environment in order to enhance citizen participation and improve democratic quality, i.e. digital democratic innovations (Mikhaylovskaya and Rouméas 2024). Within this research area, the papers will focus on a range of digital tools, such as platforms for democratic decision-making, e-voting systems, and AI-integrated deliberative platforms, as well as a range of normative principles and features, such as inclusiveness, electoral simultaneity, and deliberative quality.
