Democracy in the Digital Era

Different studies on the state of democracy worldwide, each using different indices and related weights, all reach similar conclusions. Democracy is “backsliding” for the 16th year in a row. In this chapter, we take a very brief look at the history of democracy from fifth-century BC Athens to today as background to identifying the role and position of digital technologies and big tech platforms in particular among the main causes of its current decline. Possible actions to reverse this trend by empowering uses of digital technologies that entrance democratic practices while guarding against uses with negative impact via appropriate regulation are examined as well as the prevention of concentration of economic and political power.