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Recent developments in communication and information technologies are rapidly transforming both individual and collective life. Politics is undergoing profound change, from the ways in which consensus is constructed to the functioning of government, eroding the foundations of political organization and reshaping the processes through which leadership is formed and dissolved.
From the concentration of computational power to the rise of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), these transformations are giving rise to what can be described as Digicracy: a reconfiguration of the allocation of political power in which authority is increasingly transferred from traditional political institutions toward technical systems and the technoleaders who own and govern them. At the same time, the use of big data is changing how knowledge is produced and used in policy-making. As decision-making processes become more data-driven and algorithmically mediated, the extent to which human judgment remains meaningfully “in the loop” becomes central to questions of accountability and responsiveness.
Digital and AI-driven systems are also reshaping political intermediation. Political actors increasingly rely on data analytics to micro-target electorates, predict voter behavior, and optimize real-time interaction, while platform algorithms mediate visibility and engagement, creating dependencies that challenge their autonomy. More broadly, the blurring of boundaries between public and private spheres allows corporate actors to play a growing role in shaping the infrastructures through which political interaction takes place, raising questions about power asymmetries between political institutions, technological actors, and citizens.
Overall, this panel seeks to explore Digicracy and the changing allocation of political power in digital societies, examining how digital infrastructures, data, algorithms, and technological actors are reshaping political authority, intermediation, decision-making, accountability, and governance.