Digital Governance and Democratic Legitimacy in Local Contexts

As artificial intelligence, digital platforms, and algorithmic governance increasingly mediate the relationship between citizens and public institutions, democratic legitimacy is being renegotiated at the local and subnational level. This panel engages directly with the Congress's concern for how AI, disinformation, and the growing influence of private and non-state actors are reshaping democratic accountability — examining these dynamics from the vantage point of cities, regions, and local institutions rather than the national or international level alone.
We welcome theoretical, comparative, and empirical contributions addressing themes such as algorithmic governance and digital rights in local administration; disinformation and political communication at the subnational level; the growing role of private (tech) actors in local democratic processes; institutional trust and early warning systems in times of crisis; and platform governance as a site of both democratic innovation and democratic erosion.
The panel asks whether local digital governance can serve as a laboratory for more resilient and accountable democratic practice — or whether it merely reproduces, at a smaller scale, the uncertainties threatening democracy globally.