Abstract
Although the relationship between digitalisation and democracy is subject of growing public attention, the nature of this relationship is rarely addressed in a systematic manner. The common understanding is that digital media are the driver of the political change we are facing today. This paper argues against such a causal approach und proposes a co-evolutionary perspective instead. Inspired by Benedict Anderson's Imagined Communities and recent research on mediatisation, it introduces the concept of mediated democracy. This concept reflects the simple idea that representative democracy requires technical mediation, and that the rise of modern democracy and of communication media are therefore closely intertwined. Hence, mediated democracy denotes a research perspective, not a type of democracy. It explores the changing interplay of democratic organisation and communication media as a contingent constellation, which could have evolved differently. Specific forms of communication media emerge in tandem with larger societal formations and mutually enable each other. Following this argument, the current constellation reflects a transformation of representative democracy and the spread of digital media. The latter is interpreted as a training ground for experimenting with new forms of democratic agency.
Highlights
The relationship between digitalisation and democracy is subject of growing public attention, the nature of this relationship is rarely addressed in a systematic manner
It may be for this reason that the academic attention, that of political science included, primarily focuses on the role of communication media as a driver of social and political change
John Keane's "Democracy and Media Decadence" (2013), which traces the transformation of representative democracy towards what he calls "monitory democracy" ascribes powerful structuring agency to "communicative abundance"
Summary
The relevance of digital media for contemporary democracies is a subject of increasing interest across the social sciences, the media and the political sphere. Mediated democracy does not denote a specific type of democracy (such as deliberative democracy, for instance) but a specific research perspective, which centres on the relationship of democracy and communication media, understood as ranging between co-evolution and co-production. The inspiration for this approach goes back to Benedict Anderson's "Imagined Communities" (1983), a book, which illustrates how the relationship between the emergence of the printing press, the public sphere and the democratic nation state can be told.. This contribution offers reasons and building blocks for a concept of mediated democracy rather than a fully fleshed-out model
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