Evgeny Morozov - Digital socialism: Reimagining social democracy for the 21st century
The great social
democratic achievements of the twentieth century were in institutional
innovation. By engaging with the risks posed to democracy by Big Tech, social
democracy can both revive this tradition and reimagine its role. But that means
leaving the comfort zone of regulation and campaigning for radically different
technological infrastructures.
First, the bad news.
When it comes to Big Tech, we have lost the plot. By we, I refer to those of us
who, in one way or another, feel a relationship with social democracy or
socialism. And by the plot, I don’t mean just our understanding of the dynamics
of the digital economy and digital capitalism, but also of capitalism as such
and the role that social democracy and socialism should be playing in either
countering or counterbalancing it.
These days, it is all
too easy for social democrats and socialists to get a false sense of
priorities, and no more so than when it comes to Big Tech and Silicon Valley.
Although it is true that social democrats and socialists have traditionally
worried about questions of power, rule of law and legality, these things have
never been at the top of the social democratic or socialist agenda. The values
that have actually driven the social democratic and socialist project have
always been egalitarianism, social justice and, I would argue, institutional
innovation.
Institutional
innovation is not fully understood even by those inside the social democratic
and socialist project. But it was precisely by inventing new institutions and
new practices that social democracy managed to achieve so much. They include
the welfare state and workers’ co-determination, as well as institutions that
exist somewhere between capitalism and the public sector.
Take the library
system. It’s an institution that works on an ethos and rationale different from
those of the market. We do not try to encourage competition between fifty
different libraries in order to produce the best results. We recognize that
libraries are a public good that require an infrastructure and adequate
funding. And we use that public good in order to promote a set of values, some
of which have to do with solidarity, cooperation and egalitarianism.... read more:
https://www.eurozine.com/digital-socialism/
see also
Democracy is losing the online arms race
Information: A public good
Can Capitalism and Democracy Coexist?
Information: A public good
Can Capitalism and Democracy Coexist?
