The research integrates insights from the Frankfurt School and Debord’s theory of the spectacle to analyze the performative transformation of politics under intensified mediation. The central claim is that an AI-driven spectacle marks a shift in political representation: algorithmic personalization, engagement-based amplification, and synthetic media production restructure political visibility and recalibrate citizens’ modes of involvement.

The article examines the structural tension between democratic procedures and democratic consciousness in AI-mediated political communication. Contemporary democracies may preserve representative institutions, yet the communicative environments within which they operate are structured through algorithmic systems optimized for engagement rather than deliberation. Drawing on research on democratic quality, this contribution argues that democracy depends not only on institutional design but also on citizen dispositions - democratic commitments, political capacities, and political participation - reinterpreted here as dimensions of democratic consciousness. Building on classical and modern democratic theory the analysis links political endurance to the formation of reflective citizens capable of informed judgment and participation. It then integrates insights from the Frankfurt School and Debord’s theory of the spectacle to analyze the performative transformation of politics under intensified mediation. The central claim is that an AI-driven spectacle marks a shift in political representation: algorithmic personalization, engagement-based amplification, and synthetic media production restructure political visibility and recalibrate citizens’ modes of involvement.The argument specifies a causal sequence through which AI mediation can erode democratic consciousness by fragmenting shared exposure, privileging affect over evaluation, and embedding agency in attention-driven feedback loops. At the same time, it acknowledges that AI systems can expand access to information and lower barriers to participation; their democratic implications therefore depend on institutional, regulatory, and normative constraints. The discussion concludes that sustaining democratic quality in the age of AI requires renewed attention to the conditions that cultivate consciousness, agency, representation, and participation.