“Easily, Flexibly, and Fully:” Designing for Democracy

• In Event: Pragmatism, Populism, and Democratic Theory

Abstract

As platforms on which ‘the people’ can gather, outside the influence of ‘elite’ gatekeepers, digital technologies like Reddit are often intimately bound up in conversations about the ascendency of contemporary populist movements. Yet even as these sites democratize information, multiplying the spaces in which citizens can find, share, and discuss issues of public concern, they have also been tied to the worst of populist tendencies—often displaying the worst of citizens’ inclinations towards racism, misogyny, and other forms of hate. Digital platforms, in other words, pose an intriguing problem for democratic theorists: how might we cultivate populist spaces—and communities—that expand the opportunities for democratic decision-making, while also preventing them from becoming unwelcoming, hostile, or aggressive to perceived outsiders?

This paper tackles this question by drawing from the pragmatic tradition, and particularly the work of John Dewey. Taking an architectural approach, I argue that for spaces to host democratic politics, they must be designed in a way that will help members cultivate the “experimental habits of mind” that are necessary for widespread, and productive, democratic decision-making. In Dewey’s writing on education, we find two requirements for the development of these experimental habits: (1) a diverse, and changing, environment, and (2) the active participation of individuals in processes of decision-making and discipline. In order to successfully achieve the populist goals of ‘rule by the people,’ in other words, democratic spaces must be designed to facilitate the pragmatic practices of experimentalism.

Using these criteria, I then evaluate Reddit by comparing the evolutions of r/the_donald (a community devoted to Donald Trump supporters) and r/TwoXChromosomes (a community dedicated to “women’s issues”). I argue that in closing off its boundaries to new ideas and new members, r/the_donald turned itself into a static, and stagnant, space that ultimately warped its members' habits and attitudes; likewise, while the inclusion of r/TwoXChromosomes in the list of Reddit defaults led to a more open and diverse community, the overreliance on moderators nevertheless led to a less democratic space. I conclude by turning to other sites, like Slashdot and Metafilter, to show how Reddit might be redesigned to achieve more democratic outcomes. By developing a set of criteria with which to evaluate the democratic potential of these popular digital spaces, this paper not only shows the continued relevance of pragmatic political theory for pressing contemporary issues, but also provides guidance for practitioners interested in using digital technology towards democratic ends.

Author

• Jennifer Forestal, Loyola University, Chicago