France: to Digital Democracy

Abstract

The article, using the example of France, a country with a rich democratic history and tradition, examines the process of transformation of the concept and the role of democracy in the digital revolution. In this context, the object of the study was new ideas in assessing democracy and their refraction in the legislative activity of the parliament and implementation by the executive branch, as well as their impact on the rights and freedoms of the individual. The purpose of the work is to find an answer to the question of how traditional forms of democracy and their perception in the public mind correspond to the realities of our days. This defines its main tasks — identifying the effects of digitalization on democracy, their impact on democratic institutions and processes. To implement the tasks set, both general scientific research methods (logical, historical, systemic) and special methods were used: formal legal, comparative legal methods, and the interpretation of law. For specialists who advocate the concept of “digital democracy”, its implementation opens up new prospects for the establishment of true democracy, where direct forms of its implementation, citizen participation in decision-making at all levels of government are expanding. There are other points of view, the essence of which is to deny the significant effects of digitalization on democracy. Moreover, its State reforms in France attach particular importance to the “figure”, which, according to their initiators, will generally strengthen the country's democratic institutions. The figure appears in the title of the work of the working groups on the parliamentary reform, in the laws adopted by it, which allocated and subjected to legal regulation of areas of activity, especially those affected by digitalization. Negative consequences are emphasized: cybercrime, dehumanization of society, human exclusion. The article outlines a number of problems that digitalization poses for democracy and its main subject and object — the person. Indeed, digitalization opens up unprecedented opportunities, but does it fundamentally change the nature and nature of the relationship between “managers” and “governed” (L. Duguit). All these issues were the subject of analysis in this article.