POLS 033. Democracy and Technology

New technologies are transforming democratic societies at warp speed. Social media apps like Facebook and Twitter have reshaped public discourse, while artificial intelligence, virtual reality, cryptocurrency, and bioengineering hold equally disruptive potential. This political theory course explores the political and ethical significance of these technological developments for democratic citizenship. We will explore the profound risks posed by these platforms: misinformation and fake news, threats to personal liberty and privacy, algorithmic injustice, racial and gender bias, corporate monopolies, and consolidation of economic power in a small tech elite. We will also explore how technology might be used, creatively, to expand democratic oversight, foster new experiments in living, and empower ordinary citizens to contest power. Our focus will be normative and philosophical, asking deep questions about the meaning of technology for human behavior, while drawing upon concrete empirical examples in both an American and global context.