This module introduces students to the subject of Digital Democracy and adjacent topics, including (but not limited to) political participation and civic engagement; mobilisation; social movements and digital activism; electoral campaigns; equality, diversity and inclusion online as well as hate speech and online violence, and different forms of political campaigning. We will contextualise the concepts of representation, legitimation, and accountability in the Internet age and empirically investigate their different manifestations today, looking at a range of political 'actors', e.g., governments, political parties, civil society actors as well as bots, trolls, and AI. We will work on specific, real events and cases, with suggestions from students. The module will follow an issue-based structure, i.e., each session focuses on specific cases, introducing students to both theoretical and empirical questions relevant to the respective topic.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the module students should be able to:
understand and critically apply theoretical approaches to digital era representation, legitimation, and accountability.
describe and interpret the opportunities and risks of digital technologies for democratic processes.
critically analyse current events and phenomena related to Digital Democracy as empirical case studies.