title: Digital tension: A comparison between democracies and authoritarian regimes
metadata.name: dc.contributor.author
metadata.value: Bajpai, Arunoday
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.date.accessioned
metadata.value: 2022-03-04T11:46:58Z
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.date.available
metadata.value: 2022-03-04T11:46:58Z
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.date.issued
metadata.value: 2021-12
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.identifier.citation
metadata.value: Bajpai A. Digital tension: A comparison between democracies and authoritarian regimes. Political Expertise: POLITEX, 2021, vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 330–340.
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.identifier.other
metadata.value: https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu23.2021.401
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.identifier.uri
metadata.value: http://hdl.handle.net/11701/35446
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.description.abstract
metadata.value: There is no looking back from the ever-increasing digitalization of political processes and administration.
  This is a global phenomenon, but it has different impacts in democratic and authoritarian
  regimes. This theoretical paper seeks to explain this difference using the concept of
  digital tension. Digital tension refers to incompatibility among the different components of digital
  technology, which gives rise to incongruence and even conflict between different outcomes of
  use of digital technology to political processes. Digital technology promotes openness, transparency,
  and decentralized use, but it also facilitates centralization of monitoring and control.
  The outcomes of openness, decentralization, and transparency in actual practice go against the
  centralizing tendencies inherent in the same technology. In political discourse we say that digital
  technology empowers ordinary citizens, but we can also assert that it equally empowers rulers
  in a political regime. However, the interests of the rulers and the ruled are not the same even in
  democratic regimes. Since governing authorities are more resourceful, they are likely to use digital
  technology to enhance their power. This tendency is found in both democratic and authoritarian
  regimes. In democratic regimes, the ruling regime may use digital technology not only to centralized
  monitoring and control, but also for greater surveillance of opponents and critics. However,
  digital tension is well managed in authoritarian regimes, and hence the empowerment of rulers
  through digital technology is more pronounced. Thus, digital technology for centralized monitoring,
  supervision, and control is a boon for authoritarian regimes. This paper is divided onto four
  parts: Part one deals with theoretical issues related to digital technology and digital tension, Part
  two analyzes the role of digital technology in democratic regimes, Part three explains the use of
  this technology in authoritarian regimes, and Part four compares democratic and authoritarian
  regimes with respect to the use of digital technology and lists conclusions of this study.
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.language.iso
metadata.value: en
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.publisher
metadata.value: St Petersburg State University
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.relation.ispartofseries
metadata.value: Political Expertise: POLITEX;Volume 17; Issue 4
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: digital tensions
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: democratic regimes
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: authoritarian regimes
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: centralization of control
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: digital tension management
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: ruler empowerment
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.title
metadata.value: Digital tension: A comparison between democracies and authoritarian regimes
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.type
metadata.value: Article
metadata.lang: en_GB
resources.filename: 330-340.pdf
resources.url: https://dspace.spbu.ru/bitstream/11701/35446/1/330-340.pdf
resources.format: Adobe PDF
resources.size: 679,14 kB