14What remains of digital democracy? Contemporary political cleavages and democratic practices
Once regarded as the savior of the democratic polity, digital media and communications have more recently come to be seen as its nemesis. The disruptive capacity of the Internet has in the past been variously championed for undermining authoritarian regimes, providing alternative independent media channels, enabling citizen journalism, as well as offering the prospect of casting a transparent light into our darkened representative chambers through a new dawn of participatory democracy. In recent times however it seems as if these turbulent digital affordances have opened a Pandora’s box of anti-democratic forces. It is claimed that ...
