The Digitocracy: How Voting with Thumbs Rewired Democratic Judgment

This paper develops the concept of Digitocracy to explain how digital platforms transform democratic judgment without replacing democratic institutions. Digitocracy describes a condition in which political participation is intensified through continuous affective signaling while deliberation, accountability, and decision-making are weakened. Social media reshapes how legitimacy is formed by privileging visibility, certainty, and emotional resonance over justification and institutional resolution. The result is not immediate authoritarianism, but persistent democratic agitation without durable outcomes, a condition that erodes legitimacy and can be mobilized to justify authoritarian claims. Digitocracy names a structural shift in democratic political economies rather than a new form of governance.