Artificial Democracy
Artificial Democracy
The Impact of Big Data on Politics, Policy, and Polity
Democracy and data have a complicated relationship. Under the influence of big data and artificial intelligence, some democracies are being transformed, for better or worse, as relations between citizens, political parties, governments, and corporations are redrawn. As the pace of technological change accelerates, suffusing how we govern and are governed, there is an urgent need to assess these transformations.
Artificial Democracy explores the ways in which data collection, analytics, and application are changing political practices, government policies, and democratic polities themselves. With an international roster of multidisciplinary contributors, this highly topical collection takes a comprehensive approach to big data’s effect on democracy through such topics as elections, political party interactions, government policies, and the ways we conceptualize the relationship between individuals and government.
From the use of micro-targeting in electoral campaigns to the clash between privacy and surveillance in the name of protecting society during the COVID-19 pandemic, Artificial Democracy tackles both the dangers and the potentially desirable changes made possible by the symbiosis of big data and artificial intelligence. Along the way, it not only provides important insights about the current transformation of politics, policy, and polities, but also explores the effects, implications, opportunities, and risks that we should expect in the near future.
This cutting-edge study will find an international readership of political scientists, legislators, bureaucrats, and stakeholders in cybersecurity, while attracting scholars and students of sociology, political communication, law, computer science, and philosophy.
Artificial Democracy provides essential information for understanding big data and democracy, and offers important frameworks for thinking about contemporary data practices.
Cecilia Biancalana is a researcher in political science at the University of Turin. She has worked at the Istituto Carlo Cattaneo in Bologna and the Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli in Milan, and has served as a senior researcher at the Université de Lausanne, Switzerland.
Eric Montigny is a professor of political science at Université Laval and co-director of the Laboratoire international associé sur les partis politiques, la représentation et le développement durable (International Laboratory on Political Parties, Representation, and Sustainable Development) in collaboration with the Université de Lausanne. He is an associate researcher in the Groupe de recherche en communication politique (Political Communication Research Group) and the research chair on democracy and parliamentary institutions at Université Laval.
Contributors: Colin Bennett, François Blais, Pierre-Luc Déziel, Yannick Dufresne, David Lyon, Catherine Ouellet, François Pellegrini, Julia Rone, Pierre Trudel
Introduction: Towards an Artificial Democracy? / Eric Montigny and Cecilia Biancalana
Part 1: Polity: A Regulatory Framework for a Democratic Use of Data and AI
1 Big Data and Electoral Democracy: The Epistemic Risk / François Blais
2 Big Data: A Collective Resource of Connected Worlds / Pierre Trudel
3 The Democratic Specifications / François Pellegrini
Part 2: Politics: Use of Data, Profiling, and Personalizing in Electioneering
4 The Closing of Ranks: The Collusion of Federal Political Parties and the Resistance to Privacy Regulation / Colin J. Bennett
5 Digital Data as a Lens on Voters’ Lifestyle: Theoretical Perspectives and Insights / Catherine Ouellet and Yannick Dufresne
6 What’s Behind Micro-Targeting? The Role of Party Members. Ethnography of a Data-Driven Campaign in Turin / Cecilia Biancalana
Part 3: Policy: Surveillance and Data Protection During the COVID-19 Pandemic
7 Surveillance Capitalism Meets the Pandemic: Surveillance Challenges to the "Social Contract" / David Lyon
8 The Use of COVID-19 Exposure Notification Apps in Canada: A Deep Dive in the Provincial Privacy Frameworks / Pierre-Luc Déziel
Conclusion: Democracy as an Artifact / Julia Rone and Cecilia Biancalana
Big Data Surveillance and Security Intelligence
The Canadian Case
Edited by David Lyon and David Murakami Wood
