The Future of Digital Democracy

1. Front Matter

   Pages I-XI

   PDF

2. Young People as Engaged Citizens: A Difficult Challenge Between Disillusionments and Hopes

   • Bruna Zani, Elvira Cicognani

   Pages 1-13

3. Experiments on the Reaction of Citizens to New Voting Rules: A Survey

   • Jean-François Laslier

   Pages 14-23

4. Egalitarianism vs. Utilitarianism in Preferential Voting

   • Pierluigi Contucci, Alina Sîrbu

   Pages 24-37

5. Knowledge Management for Democratic Governance of Socio-Technical Systems

   • Jeremy Pitt, Ada Diaconescu, Josiah Ober

   Pages 38-61

6. The Problematic Relationship Between Trust and Democracy; Its Crisis and Web Dangers and Promises

   • Cristiano Castelfranchi, Rino Falcone

   Pages 62-82

7. Democratic Process and Digital Platforms: An Engineering Perspective

   • Danilo Pianini, Andrea Omicini

   Pages 83-96

8. Back Matter

   Pages 97-101

   PDF

Digital democracy is a hot topic nowadays, its relevance growing along with the impact of computational platforms on our(political) life. Communication is the basal fabric on which society is defined, and it appears obvious that the civic organisation and politics itself should take the opportunities the "digital revolution" offers. Institutional inertia, nevertheless, causes large delays in updating and adapting. Therefore, the balance between participation and delegated representation is now facing a crisis. A thorough understanding of the factors involved in participation is a first step towards providing solutions. Using the Internet to fill the gap and build a digital democracy provides an opportunity, along with several risks that need to be carefully analysed. It needs to be implemented using a fully inter- and trans-disciplinary perspective. 
 
The six contributions included in this State-of-the Art Survey present research in the field of social sciences as well as mathematics and computer science and aim at contributing to a better understanding of the potential and dangers of digital democracy, helping readers go beyond the misunderstandings, the misconceptions,and the conceptual and practical abuses that the very notion of democracy is undergoing during this age of technological revolution and social turmoils.

• authentication
• authorization
• cryptography
• data security
• Delegation
• Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)
• information technology
• knowledge management
• resource allocation
• resource management
• security systems
• software engineering

• University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

  Pierluigi Contucci

• University of Bologna, Cesena, Italy

  Andrea Omicini, Danilo Pianini

• University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy

  Alina Sîrbu

Policies and ethics