Sovereignty in the Age of Twitter

Abstract:     
This essay considers the effect of modern methods of individual and group communication (e.g. cell phones, the internet, Twitter) on the concept and "practice" of sovereignty, hypothesizing that the inability of repressive regimes fully to control the exchange of information among their citizens and between their citizens and the outside world necessarily has a democratizing effect. The essay also considers some of the difficulties posed by the ubiquity of those same methods of communication: information overload, partial information, misinformation and disinformation.

Accepted Paper Series