数字时代协商民主的风险及法治应对

Risks of Deliberative Democracy in the Digital Era and Responses to the Rule of Law

数字技术推动了协商民主的深度变革,但数字技术在为协商民主“广泛、多层、制度化发展”提供强大动力的同时,也使协商民主面临信息茧房引发群体极化、数字鸿沟导致博弈失衡、算法偏见致使民意失真以及舆论操控引发民主扭曲等潜在风险。这些风险可能引发的法治困境是技术异化对人本精神的侵蚀、权力泛化对社会公意的消解以及权利虚化对法治目标的背离,从而使协商民主制度违背其设计初衷。因此,需要通过设定合理的法治理念、完善法制规制策略以及培养数字公民精神等举措,保证协商民主的法治化发展方向。

Digital technology has promoted the in-depth reform of deliberative democracy. Whiled igital technology provides a strong impetus for deliberative democracy’s “extensive, multi-layered andinstitutionalized development”, it also makes deliberative democracy face the following potential risks:g roup polarization caused by information cocoons, game imbalance caused by digital gap, public opiniondistortion caused by algorithmic bias, and democratic distortion caused by manipulation of publico pinion. The predicament of the rule of law that these risks may cause is the erosion of the humanisticspirit by the alienation of technology, the dissolution of the public will by the generalization of power, and the departure from the goal of the rule of law by the virtualization of rights, so that the deliberativedemocracy system violates its original design intention. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure the rule of lawd evelopment direction of deliberative democracy by setting a reasonable concept of the rule of law,improving the strategy of legal regulation, and cultivating the spirit of digital citizenship.