Book presentation "Reflections for a quality democracy in a technological era"

It constitutes a joint work of analysis and ideas elaborated by a group of professors, researchers, professionals and experts in the various topics presented. The book also has the valuable collaboration in two chapters of Minsait, an Indra company.

The contents structured into three main thematic blocks: a) Society, participation and social networks; b) Parliaments and technology; c) Electoral processes and technology. Each area of participation is affected by technology and each area is undergoing relevant transformations that should improve the quality and challenges of participation, responding in new scenarios to the problems of our global and multidisciplinary society.

Each of these three participatory areas is introduced by interviews of three relevant public figures as first-row spectators: José Luis Piñar Mañas, former Director of the Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD), who reflects and analyzes the new challenges facing freedom of expression, protecting and safeguarding other fundamental rights that coexist simultaneously; Meritxell Batet, president of the Congress of Deputies, who reflects on the role that parliament must play in a technological era that is transforming the parliamentary mandate, and the classic functioning of parliaments; Miguel Colmenero Menéndez de Luarca, president of the Central Electoral Board, who clearly vindicates the relevant role of the institutions, especially the CEC, in safeguarding the essence of democracy: "free and fair elections",  and for this purpose, its "new enemies" must be identified, the convenience or not of implementing technology in certain areas or phases of the electoral process, and the need for careful vigilance in the face of the profound and vertiginous changes brought about by technology.

The book is prefaced by Simona Granata-Menghini (Secretary General of the Venice Commission) with a more than suggestive invitation to reflection under the provocative logic of the question: "A democracy of avatar or an avatar of democracy?" Her words suggest that in complex and transformative processes we must not forget that there is always an enriching side and a dark, unforeseen side that also is and acts. Technology has both sides. This joint work is the result of a collective effort of analysis, study and reflection on the permanent interaction between Democracy and technology. Nowadays, things changes at a speed hard to keep up with. Reflection and ideas are always fruits of slow maturation and of a calm path.

This book gathers the thoughts and experiences of many experts in each of the fields mentioned above.

Citizen participation in public affairs and its corresponding tools have grown in the past years: the importance of taking care of the free formation of public opinion (Rafael Bustos Gisbert), the populist scenarios that are hitting our democracy (José A. Sanz Moreno), the engineering of public opinion (Rafael Bustos Gisbert), and the importance of the public opinion (José A. Sanz Moreno). Sanz Moreno), the enormous protagonism that "social networks" are reaching (Jordi Barrat i Esteve); the importance of understanding and unraveling the meaning of the "digital empowerment" of the individual of the century we live in (José Mª Coello de Portugal); the effort to differentiate, in the midst of this technological revolution, between quality and quantity (José A. Rubio Blanco); technology within political parties, permeating and redesigning their "primaries" processes (María Salvador Martínez); the threat of certain online contents, in their respect or breach of constitutional values and principles (Ignacio Álvarez Rodríguez), the use and abuse of the loudspeaker of technology for political leaders (President of the government and Minister spokesperson), (Piedad García-Escudero Márquez).

Also the parliamentary law and the heart of the Chambers is tinged with technology: citizen participation in the budgetary function of parliaments (Françoise Barque); the experience of the Italian Parliament and its technological adaptation in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis (Cristina Fasone); the transformation of the parliamentary mandate with the use of technology by representatives (Rosa Mª Fernández Riveira); the experience of the German parliament, exercising its functions in a pandemic through an unprecedented use of technology (Jorge Alguacil Aurioles); the House of Westminster and the British model of a classic parliament giving first class technological responses to the global health crisis (Aday Jiménez Alemán and Carmen Montesinos Padilla).

And finally, the heart of democracy, which beats thanks to the right of suffrage articulated by electoral law, must also deal with this technological revolution. The examples of elections such as the Galician or Basque, which have had to be developed in the midst of a global pandemic (Manuel Delgado Iribarren), the little use that has been made of electronic voting and its great potential in this health crisis (Ángel Sánchez Navarro), the voice of the European Court of Human Rights building a statute for the "political opposition" at the stroke of reflection and judgment (Javier García Roca); the need to guarantee the integrity of the "electoral processes" as the driving force of any real democracy, avoiding disinformation and the intervention of the judiciary (Adam Krzywon); the protection of personal data to avoid its interested treatment by political parties (Covadonga Ferrer Martín de Vidales); the right of suffrage of disabled people and the new European standards (María Garrote de Marcos) or, the historical evolution of electoral processes and the use of technology over time (Pablo Sarrias Bandrés).

Democracy plus technology, an equation in need of reflection. May this book be a help to clear up part of that equation.