Future Politics

Politics in the Twentieth Century was dominated by a single question: how much of our collective life should be determined by the state, and what should be left to the market and civil society?

Now the debate is different: to what extent should our lives be directed and controlled by powerful digital systems - and on what terms?

Digital technologies - from artificial intelligence to blockchain, from robotics to virtual reality - are transforming the way we live together. Those who control the most powerful technologies are increasingly able to control the rest of us. As time goes on, these powerful entities - usually big tech firms and the state - will set the limits of our liberty, decreeing what may be done and what is forbidden. Their algorithms will determine vital questions of social justice. In their hands, democracy will flourish or decay.

A landmark work of political theory, Future Politics challenges readers to rethink what it means to be free or equal, what it means to have power or property, and what it means for a political system to be just or democratic. In a time of rapid and relentless changes, it is a book about how we can - and must - regain control.

Winner of the Estoril Global Issues Distinguished Book Prize.

Politica din secolul al XX-lea a fost dominata de o singura intrebare: cat de mult din viata noastra colectiva ar trebui sa fie determinata de stat si ce ar trebui lasat pe piata si societatii civile? dirijate si controlate de sisteme digitale puternice - si in ce termeni? Tehnologiile digitale - de la inteligenta artificiala la blockchain, de la robotica la realitatea virtuala - transforma modul in care traim impreuna.