Digital Futures Between Participatory Digital Democracy and Participatory Digital Fascism

This paper explores one of the defining political questions of the twenty-first century: will digital technologies strengthen democracy or accelerate new forms of authoritarianism and fascism? Against the backdrop of platform capitalism, AI-driven communication, surveillance infrastructures, disinformation and democratic crisis, the study asks how experts in digital democracy assess the present condition and possible futures of digital society. To address this question, the paper draws on the Futures of Digital Democracy Survey (FDDS), a two-round international expert survey involving researchers, practitioners and civil society actors working in the fields of digital democracy, media, Internet governance and digital society.