Last week we invited two guests to our weekly readings colloquium: Lucy Parry and Hans Asenbaum, who presented us their new, not-yet-published papers Democracy in a Flux: A Systemic View on the Impact of COVID-19“ (co-author: Selen Ercan) und „(De)Futuring Democracy. Labs as Democratic Innovation Between Agency and Control“ (co-author: Frederic Hanusch). Together we discussed how democratic spheres and formats of participation have changed during the corona crisis, while at the same time technocratic approaches gained influence. Besides, we debated labs, approaches of classifying them amidst democratic innovations and collaborative governance, and their potential for more inclusive forms of participation in the future. Thank you Lucy and Hans for this insightful discussion!
Schlagwort: Partizipation
Colin Bennett: The Encoded Voter – Data-Driven Elections in Western Democracies
Montag, 20. Mai 2019, 18:00 - 19:30 Uhr
Weizenbaum-Institut, Raum A103–A105
Veranstaltungswebsite
It is now widely supposed in many democracies that the modern political campaign needs to be “data driven” to consolidate existing support and to find potential new voters and donors. The capture of data on political opinions and affiliation permits the construction of profiles on individual voters and the “micro-targeting” of increasingly precise messages to increasingly refined segments of the electorate. In view of this Colin Bennett asked to what extent should modern campaigns be allowed to “know” the electorate? He illustrated that the answer to this question relies to some extent on privacy and data protection rules, based on principles of notice and consent. But the answer also relies on deeper theoretical issues concerning democracy and political culture. How can we understand the development of data-driven elections in western democracies in broader theoretical terms? And what factors should, and will, shape the entrance and impact of micro-targeting practices into different Western democracies?