Multilayered Linked Democracy

Abstract

Although confidence in democracy to tackle societal problems is falling, new civic participation tools are appearing supported by modern ICT technologies. These tools implicitly assume different views on democracy and citizenship which have not been fully analysed, but their main fault is their isolated operation in non-communicated silos. We can conceive public knowledge, like in Karl Popper's World 3, as distributed and connected in different layers and by different connectors, much as it happens with the information in the web or the data in the linked data cloud. The interaction between people, technology and data is still to be defined before alternative institutions are founded, but the so called linked democracy should rest on different layers of interaction: linked data, linked platforms and linked ecosystems; a robust connectivity between democratic institutions is fundamental in order to enhance the way knowledge circulates and collective decisions are made. Keywords Linked democracy Á Multilayered linked democracy Á Linked data Á Linked platforms Á Linked ecosystems Á World 3 Á Institutions 3.1 Introduction Contemporary democracies face growing scepticism about their capacity to manage complex societal problems. Financial crises, inequality and poverty, climate change and armed conflicts routinely test the resilience of our democratic systems. Researchers are predominantly expressing concern about the developments of the last decade. Larry Diamond draws from Freedom House data to argue that we are in a 'mild but protracted democratic recession' since 2006 (Diamond 2015, 144). Roberto Foa and Yascha Mounk analyse World Values Surveys to conclude that citizens in Western democracies have 'become more cynical about the value of

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