E-democracy and the Matter of Scale. Revisiting the Democratic Promises of the Internet in Terms of the Spatial Dimension

Abstract

The emergence of the Internet fueled euphoric—partially utopian—visions that can be summarized as democratic promises. In most cases, the normative and empirical discussion so far has considered e‑democracy tools and their potential, regardless of the scale of interaction—be it local, national, or transnational—as a one-size-fits-all approach, assuming that what is applicable for the national level will be equally true for the subnational and transnational levels. We argue that the question of whether the Internet and digital tools can fulfill the democratic promises must be confronted in a more differentiated way, examining under which spatial conditions e‑democracy is more likely to incentivize citizens to engage and to involve more citizens as well as marginalized citizens in public debates and decision making. The article introduces scale as a new element for a better theoretical understanding of e‑democracy. We establish a conceptual framework that enables us to capture scale as distance in terms of territorial, cognitive, and affective distance. The spatial perspective brings an innovative spin to the somewhat petrified positions on the mobilizing or reinforcing effects of digital tools as well as a new theoretical argument for the debate on e‑democracy in general.

Social media and politics on the local level

“…Since political issues of personal relevance are often bound to local experiences, one might argue that most aspects of politics are shaped by spatial characteristics, irrespective of whether they take place online or offline (Casero‐Ripollés et al, 2020; Kneuer & Datts, 2020). Interestingly, the findings of Elter (2013, pp.…”

“…Since many citizens lament the increasing gulf between politics and society, a dialogue‐oriented use of social media by the local party chapters would indicate the willingness and ability of political parties to adapt to the changing needs and demands of the citizenship (Jackson & Lilleker, 2009, p. 235). As the local level has been shown to be a promising level for interactivity and responsiveness online (Kneuer & Datts, 2020; Lev‐On & Steinfeld 2015), we will investigate the unidirectional activities on Facebook and the interactive usage of this medium.…”

Die Sozialwahlen in der Krise: E-Democracy als Chance?

“…Angesichts eines zunehmenden Vertrauensverlustes in Institutionen der öffentlichen Verwaltung und der Politik präsentierten sich Internettechnologien als Lösungsweg, um u. a. Politikverdrossenheit entgegenzuwirken (Kneuer, 2016, S. 667). Die hohen Erwartungen sind einer wis-senschaftlichen Debatte um mögliche Negativwirkungen gewichen, die sich aus dem Einsatz digitaler Medien ergeben (Propaganda-Roboter, Desinformation, Manipulation) (Kneuer & Datts, 2020). Gleichzeitig bemüht sich die Forschung, die tatsächlichen Effekte der Informations-und Kommunikationstechnologien auf demokratische Prinzipien, wie Partizipation, mithilfe empirischer Studien zu überprüfen (Buzogány, 2016;Kersting, 2016;Vowe, 2014;Wilker, 2019).…”

“…Angesichts einer digitalen Trendwende kommen im Rahmen von E-Democracy zunehmend elektronische Verfahren der Bürgerbeteiligung (E-Partizipation) zum Einsatz (Leitner, 2018, S. 2). Sie haben das Potenzial einer Revision demokratischer Werte (Kneuer & Datts, 2020).…”

The Ongoing Transformation of the Digital Public Sphere: Basic Considerations on a Moving Target

“…The recent decades more than anything else have re-vealed the ambivalence not only of the articulated expectations but also of the 'real' development itself. The vision of a transformed digital public sphere as a globally networked sphere, reconfigured in its power distribution and deterritorialized is challenged by the reality of a disintegrated public sphere shaped by cyber ghettos (Dahlgren, 2005), where public discourses are managed by algorithms, and geography still seems to count (Kneuer & Datts, 2020).…”