Democracy, Responsibility, and Information Technology

Democracy is a notion whose legitimacy is based on its moral foundations. The first part of the paper demonstrates the moral qualities of democracy. For this purpose structural and material similarities between the concept of responsibility and democracy are especially useful. In the second part of the paper the impact of information technology, especially the Internet, on the moral foundation of democracy will be analysed. It will be shown that the Internet is a mixed blessing to democracy, that it has accidental as well as inherent properties that threaten the ascription of responsibility and thus the moral base of democracy. In a last step it will be discussed what political and theoretical conclusion should be drawn from this.