KAFP 4215 - Governance, Democracy and Public Policy: Digital Democracy and Public Spaces

Public authorities worldwide are facing extraordinary challenges, from managing an unprecedented public health crisis, restoring economic growth without damaging the environment, combating inequality, securing peace, and regulating emerging technologies while fuelling competition and innovation. Amidst these challenges, the dilemma for public regulators is whether to preserve traditional structures and approaches to democratic governance (and doing so in spite of a widespread perception of their inefficiency) or to adapt them to fast-changing scenarios (yet running the risk of further weakening democracy). Hence the fundamental question: should new, digitalised, hybrid forms of democratic participation replace classic structures/channels for democratic deliberation? And how should power roles be redistributed?

This course aims at analysing the role of technology in the democratic policy cycle, assessing the impact the former is having on the latter, in terms of greater civic engagement, enhanced transparency and improved effectiveness, but also in relation to its risks, biases and limits. Each class will revolve around a keyword (e.g. infrastructures, platforms, design, privacy) describing crucial aspects and related issues of ongoing digitised democratic spaces at local, national and supranational levels worldwide.

Gianluca SGUEO,Lorenzo ANCONA

Cours magistral seul

English

Students are expected to spend roughly 5 hours per week on this course. This includes 2 hours of in-person lectures or seminars per week and 3 hours ‘out of class' time spent on preparatory readings, studying time for exams as well as time spent on preparing assignments.

Students are requested to:

Read the following books/reports prior to the beginning of the course:

- GIANLUCA SGUEO, The Design of Digital Democracy, Springer, 2023
- GIANLUCA SGUEO, Games, Powers & Democracies, Bocconi University Press, 2019
- GIANLUCA SGUEO, The Practice of Democracy. A Selection of Civic Engagement Initiatives, European Parliament, 2020

Watch the following movies/videos prior to the beginning of the course:

- GIANLUCA SGUEO, What if Government Was a Game?, TedTalk 2019
- GIANLUCA SGUEO, What Could be the Future of Democracy?, European Parliament 2019
- PIA MANCINI, How to upgrade democracy to the internet era, TedTalk 2014
- BETH NOVECK, Demand a more open source government, TedTalk 2012

Autumn 2024-2025

The students will be evaluated on the basis of their performance as follows:

- Assignment 1 (group presentations, 20% of the final grade): Group presentations will take place between class 3 and class 11 (with the exception of workshop classes). The calendar of the presentations, the composition of each group, the assigned case studies as well as other useful information (e.g. essential bibliography) will be communicated in due time (class 1 or 2 and/or one week before each presentation).
Assignment 2 (final exam, 40% of the final grade): The final exam will be held at the end of the course and will refer to the activities conducted during the workshops. A good understanding of the main issues debated in class throughout the semester will also be useful.
Assignment 3 (Workshop, 40% of the final rgade): During the semester students will be involved in workshop sessions (4 in total). NB. Workshops will consist of initiating, designing, advancing, and concluding a digital-based participatory democracy exercise using Pol.is, an open-source tool for crowdsourcing.

Learning should be an active and self-motivated experience. Students who passively listen to lectures, copy someone else's notes, and limit their readings to required chapters are unlikely to develop their critical thinking and expand their personal knowledge system. At the exam, these students often fail to demonstrate a critical approach. Students enrolled in this course are strongly recommended to: Visit the Moodle site of the course at regular intervals to keep abreast of course evolutions. The professor will upload relevant material in a timely manner, namely: (1) presentations (NB. these will be made available after the respective classes have taken place); (2) ‘main readings' (ranging from chapters of core textbook, journal articles by key scholars, reports and essays from think-tanks and newspapers articles); (3) ‘additional readings' related to case-studies to be presented and discussed in class. have an updated understanding of developments related to this course and related to their wider Major. Active and engaged learning will turn out to be enriching to the overall course and class discussions. Students are invited to deepen their understanding of both theoretical and current issues from a variety of sources. In particular, they are encouraged to read and browse media (both academic and divulgative) as well as leading journals focused on democracy and technology. Classes will be delivered in multiple formats: 1. Frontal lessons 2. Analysis and discussion of key case-studies 3. Workshops (team-work followed by debate) 4. Guest lectures