The government of germany officially dismisses democracy:
6. Post-voting society: Da wir genau wissen, was Leute tun und möchten, gibt es weniger Bedarf an Wahlen, Mehrheitsfindungen oder Abstimmungen. Verhaltensbezogene Daten können Demokratie als das gesellschaftliche Feedbacksystem ersetzen.
Translation:
6. Post-voting society: since we know exactly what people do and are going to do, there is less demand for elections, majority findings or votes. Behavior-related data has potential to replace democray as the societal feedback system.
@HN Mods: please forgive editing the title, since this is quite big and buried. At least for german citizens. No, this is not taken from a dystopian fascist novel, this is real.
The quote is on page 43, the author is Roope Mokka, Demos Helsinki. The chapter is about a dialog platform summarizing several speaker at what I assume is a conference. The introduction chapter says the document is preparation for a commitee or working group. I wouldn't interpret what Roope Mokka says as official policy of the German government. https://demoshelsinki.fi/ doesn't strike me as think tank to end democracy.
Fair enough, thanks for your opinion. Still I think we should actively work against this line of thought. I find it hard to prove that the general idea of "slimming" democracy by using available data better isn't on the horizon even for western democracies.
This is not the only gem in that document, mind you. There are others in the same orwellian mood. No I'm not a doomsayer, but documents like this open up a view into the mindset of advisors and think-tanks of governments.
Thanks for finding that! It strikes me a quaintly naive, progressive-washed technocracy . The ideas seem to discount the notion that people participating in democracy learn and improve themselves by acquiring control of their lives.
Imagine I wrote “Since we start threatening people with automatic firearms, there is less demand for elections.” Though that sounds more low-tech.
6. Post-voting society: Da wir genau wissen, was Leute tun und möchten, gibt es weniger Bedarf an Wahlen, Mehrheitsfindungen oder Abstimmungen. Verhaltensbezogene Daten können Demokratie als das gesellschaftliche Feedbacksystem ersetzen.
Translation:
6. Post-voting society: since we know exactly what people do and are going to do, there is less demand for elections, majority findings or votes. Behavior-related data has potential to replace democray as the societal feedback system.
@HN Mods: please forgive editing the title, since this is quite big and buried. At least for german citizens. No, this is not taken from a dystopian fascist novel, this is real.