Title: Overhauling democracy by switching to corporate-like governance

Authors: George C. Bitros

Addresses: Athens University of Economics and Business, 76 Patision Street, Athens, 104 34, Greece

Abstract: With few exceptions, representative party democracy is dysfunctional due to structural deficiencies like "the impossibility of representation in groups", "the asymmetry of information", "the state capture by political parties", and the "uncoordinated administrative polycentrism". Hence, should circumstances render imperative a regime change, citizens should opt for digital citizen-managed democracy, which combines key elements from the direct democracy of classical Athens with aspects of governance in multinational corporations, and functions by digital Information and Communications Technologies. For, self-government in this context is superior because, first, it is free from the above innate deficiencies, and second, it is endowed with several advantages. In particular, it matches policy choices to citizen preferences. It offers institutional flexibility and efficiency. Citizens as shareholders of the state engage and take responsibility for the institutions of democracy, and the problems of asymmetric information and management coordination are confronted through discussion in the electronic Ecclesia of Demos.

Keywords: deficiencies of representative party democracy; democracy in deficit; democratic deficit; direct democracy of classical Athens; Athenian institutions of state governance; governance in multinational corporations; digital citizen-managed democracy; advantages of digital citizen-managed democracy; electronic Ecclesia of Demos; citizen ownership of the institutions of democracy.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEG.2022.125882

International Journal of Electronic Governance, 2022 Vol.14 No.3, pp.380 - 400

Received: 22 May 2021
Accepted: 21 Jul 2021

Published online: 03 Oct 2022 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article