N° 16 | 2023
Democracias en la Era Digital
Democracies in Digital Era

The contemporary world faces convulse political times with the return of authoritarianism, social fragmentation, and polarization, among other challenging situations that need to be undertaken by reflection. This situation becomes problematic insofar as humanity needs to find global agreements to solve the existential risk faced by humanity —climatic change, the technological transformation of work, and the growing inequality. However, the possibility of such agreements, local and global, becomes more difficult with the accelerated emergence of complicated situations. To a large extent, the possibility of democracy is a product of the colonization of the lifeworld by technological progress, such as Trump’s arrival to power and Brexit. These events expressed the multiple ways in which Big Tech can negatively impact the political process of diverse societies. At the same time, the global public sphere is flooded with fake news, manipulations, and the promotion of dissensus and hate. Thus, democracy is eroded as it is shown by the growing technological control of societies, a phenomenon worsened by the current geopolitical struggles.

These turbulences cannot be severed from the hope promised by the horizontal communications supposedly promised by digital social networks. This problem, on the other hand, cannot be severed by the growing influence of digital media that, on the other hand, have been questioned by their obscure and secretive practices. It is necessary, therefore, to raise questions about the new horizons for the future of democracy in this era. Important questions emerge: Is it possible a working democracy in the digital world? Is it possible to establish a normative framework to protect democracy and fundamental rights? Are we condemned to a dystopian political future? These topics of investigation require interdisciplinary approaches since the political potentiality of societies cannot be obstructed by the algorithmic structures that influence the worldviews of political subjects.