Democracy in the digital public sphere: disruptive or self-corrective?

Abstract

Abstract The article assesses the post-democratic scenario of a public sphere that is detached from democracy. By describing how public spheres are transformed by the Internet, it is asked whether the co-constitutive dynamics between the public sphere and democracy still apply in the digital age, or whether we are witnessing an ultimate rupture. The field of contemporary public sphere struggles in response to the digital transformations is discussed in terms of: (1) the rebalancing of privacy and publicity; (2) the truth orientation and rationality of public debates; and (3) the modes of empowerment of the will of the people. By evaluating the empirical evidence for the deep disruptions of the public sphere and democracy, it will become possible to develop a better understanding of the self-corrective mechanisms of public sphere resilience and renewal in the digital age.