Jacques Bus

Democracy and the COVID-19 pandemic: a new role for digital technologies

The spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in 2020 is changing how we all lead our lives - and how political leaders are making decisions at the local, national and global level.

This tele-debate builds on the Digital Enlightenment Forum (DigEnlight) conference held in  November 2019 on Democracy and Media. As the pandemic remains a reality, and US elections upcoming in November may well challenge the democratic process, we propose a highly relevant debate to analyse the situation and draw lessons for the coming year.

The audience includes the general public and policy makers.

Speakers

Moderator: Dr Lieve Fransen

Speakers:

• Nuria Oliver (MIT): Lessons learned about participation, privacy and contact tracing,
• Martin Wolf (FT): Democracy will fail if we do not think like citizens.
• Tom Gerald Daly (DEM-DEC): Democracy and Covid Worldwide: Digital Threats and Solutions
• Seda F. Gürses (TU Delft): Privacy by design as Infrastructural Power
• Wieslaw Bartkowski (Univ Warsaw):

Purpose of the event

Our world is being transformed around us, and we may try to shape those changes in the direction we believe is right.

The midst of a pandemic may not, at first glance, seem the best time to reach conclusions. But in fact, it is critical to reflect and learn as many lessons as we can now. This will enable us to improve our understanding, identify weaknesses and opportunities, and provide much-needed focus as we look to develop approaches to tackle new phases and address future challenges.Nobody yet knows the precise social, organizational, financial and economic consequences of the pandemic - but we must ensure that our democratic values are not only preserved now, but are made more resilient so as to survive future challenges.

Situation analysis: lessons learned from COVID-19

Democracy has been under constant threat, even before the epidemic, with decreasing civil and political rights in many countries, limited or suppressed voting, the undermining of democratic institutions, fake news and manipulation of information in social media and other platforms, and the undermining...

This is an absolute must to listen to from begin to end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymaWq5yZIYM

Democracy is in crisis. The enthusiasm in the western world that was generated after the second world war as a reaction on fascism, communism and colonialism seems to fade out. Even short flarings like the Arabic spring, have - as of now - led to more frustration than optimism.

Actual trust in democratic institutions and public services is decreasing in Europe at all levels. Social platforms and commercial media force political actors to score high at Twitter and in the public opinion polls to ensure re-election. This in itself leads to polarisation, which is amplified by the use of vast collections of personal data for targeted communication with media readers, social networkers and potential voters.

The Internet, once seen as an excellent mechanism to enable and facilitate democratic engagement and knowledge for all, seems to have become - to a large extent - an instrument for political manipulation by the powerful.

A variety of experiments is ongoing with forms of deliberative democracy, many of them combining citizen representation by election and by lot. For example, in Ireland, Belgium, Iceland, Spain or France (the grand debats).   

Important questions arise: How to fix Democracy for the digital world? Can new digital tools actually help to guarantee democracy and ensure transparency of data use?

This DigEnlight conference will present and analyse these problems. It will show ongoing experiments, discuss remaining challenges and address problems our societies face due to increasing complexity and digitisation. We will zoom in on ethical, market and policy dilemmas that come with digitisation (e.g. artificial intelligence, Internet of Things). We seek to contribute to the search for ways of democratic governance in the digital era.

Presentations and Report

The Report of the conference, as well as the presentations, as far as given by electronic means are available in the Library of this space (see tab on top) in the Folder " Democracy Conference".

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