Democracy by Design: Perspectives for Digitally Assisted, Participatory Upgrades of Society

53 Pages Posted: 15 Nov 2022

See all articles by Dirk Helbing

Dirk Helbing

ETH Zürich - Department of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences (GESS)

Sachit Mahajan

ETH Zürich - Department of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences (GESS)

Regula Hänggli

University of Fribourg

Andrea Musso

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Carina Ines Hausladen

ETH Zürich - Department of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences (GESS)

Cesare Carissimo

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Dino Carpentras

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Elisabeth Stockinger

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Javier Argota Sánchez-Vaquerizo

ETH Zürich - Department of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences (GESS)

Joshua Yang

ETH Zürich

Mark C. Ballandies

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Marcin Korecki

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Rohit Kumar Dubey

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Evangelos Pournaras

University of Leeds

Date Written: November 2, 2022

Abstract

The technological revolution, particularly the availability of more data and more powerful computational tools, has led to the emergence of a new scientific area called Computational Diplomacy. Our work focuses on a popular subarea of it. In recent years, there has been a surge of interest in using digital technologies to promote more participatory forms of democracy. While there are numerous potential benefits to using digital tools to enhance democracy, significant challenges must be addressed. It is essential to ensure that digital technologies are used in an accessible, equitable, and fair manner rather than reinforcing existing power imbalances. This paper investigates how digital tools can be used to help design more democratic societies by investigating three key research areas: (1) the role of digital technologies in facilitating civic engagement in collective decision-making; (2) the use of digital tools to improve transparency and accountability in governance; and (3) the potential for digital technologies to enable the formation of more inclusive and representative democracies. We argue that more research on how digital technologies can be used to support democracy upgrade is needed, and we make some recommendations for future research in this direction.

Keywords: Digital Democracy, Participation, Value-Based Engineering, Adaptive Infrastructure, Computational Diplomacy

Suggested Citation

Helbing, Dirk and Mahajan, Sachit and Hänggli, Regula and Musso, Andrea and Hausladen, Carina Ines and Carissimo, Cesare and Carpentras, Dino and Stockinger, Elisabeth and Argota Sanchez-Vaquerizo, Javier and Yang, Joshua and Ballandies, Mark C. and Korecki, Marcin and Dubey, Rohit Kumar and Pournaras, Evangelos, Democracy by Design: Perspectives for Digitally Assisted, Participatory Upgrades of Society (November 2, 2022). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4266038 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4266038

Dirk Helbing

ETH Zürich - Department of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences (GESS) ( email )

ETH Zurich - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
Clausiusstrasse 50
Zurich, 8092
Switzerland

HOME PAGE: http://www.coss.ethz.ch

Sachit Mahajan (Contact Author)

ETH Zürich - Department of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences (GESS) ( email )

ETH-Zentrum SEW E 26
CH-8092 Zurich, Zurich 8006
Switzerland

Regula Hänggli

University of Fribourg ( email )

Avenue de l'Europe 20
CH-1700 Fribourg
Switzerland

Andrea Musso

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Carina Ines Hausladen

ETH Zürich - Department of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences (GESS) ( email )

Stampfenbachstrasse 48
Zürich, 8006
Switzerland

Cesare Carissimo

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Dino Carpentras

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Elisabeth Stockinger

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Javier Argota Sanchez-Vaquerizo

ETH Zürich - Department of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences (GESS) ( email )

Computational Social Science
Stampfenbachstrasse 48
Zurich, Zurich 8092
Switzerland

Joshua Yang

ETH Zürich ( email )

Mark C. Ballandies

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Marcin Korecki

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Rohit Kumar Dubey

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Evangelos Pournaras

University of Leeds ( email )

Leeds, LS2 9JT
United Kingdom

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