The technological infrastructure of democracy

Abstract

The relationship between technology and democracy is examined here from a fundamentally theoretical perspective in relation to the conceptual framework in which we should think about it. We cannot ask what technology is suitable for democracy if we do not address the kind of conditioning that technology exerts on humans, whether it is determinant, whether it is neutral, or whether it all depends on the use that is made of it. This chapter looks specifically at this in the case of algorithmic governance and asks about the desirability and possibility of politicising algorithmic decisions.