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From the second half of the 1980s onward, Western governments have been pursuing vigorously the implementation of digitalization policies. As a result, political institutions and administrative procedures have been progressively computerized. Even non-Western countries like China, India, and Russia have started reform processes aiming at the creation of "virtual states." Concurrently, developments in the Internet and related technologies have affected international relations, either heightening conflict or strengthening cooperation. e-Democracy and e-government projects and policies have generated numerous case studies, leading to a solid research tradition investigating the extent to which politics has been transformed. However, theoretical development to understand the geopolitical strategies designed by states in order to control and regulate digital networks has lagged behind. This article analyzes the main trajectories followed by states in their digitalization processes, highlighting their constitutional and geopolitical relevance. It explores the relationships between the state and information and communication technologies and proposes a set of typologies of digital regimes.

Attempts to establish constitutional provisions for the Internet have been promoted since the late 1990s, mainly by the global civil society and intergovernmental organisations. More recently, a new wave of digital constitutionalism has emerged from the nation-state level, and particularly from national parliaments. In order to better understand this process, the article seeks to investigate, from both a theoretical and an empirical perspective, whether and to what extent parliamentary initiatives exhibit specific political features compared to constitutional attempts emerging from other kinds of sources. Further, the study aims to assess if drafting initiatives overlap or, rather, respond in different ways to different constitutional concerns.

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