What do we mean when we talk about the “end of democracy”? And what does global digitization mean for democracy – salvation or nightmare? The internet offers wide-ranging opportunities for everybody to express his or her will but it can also be used to mobilize the masses. Can digital media help us think about new forms of democracy that give people a greater say than ever before in the history of mankind? Or do we risk a dictatorship of the online collective, “digital Maoism” (Jaron Lanier)? What can we learn from history about successful democracies, and what visions for a new form of “the best of all possible” social orders can we develop?

GUESTS Prof. Dr. Jeanette Hofmann (expert on internet policy, Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society), Prof. Dr. Volker Gerhardt (legal and social philosopher, HU Berlin)
MODERATOR Johanna Wall