Fake News in Democracy: Or, Giving a Helping Hand to Political Science

The aim of the research is to discuss the link between fake news and democracy. In order to achieve this goal, a novel application of operational research in political science with respect to democracy is used. Political science is a multidisciplinary field and comprises various aspects of other disciplines, such as: economics, law, sociology, geography, philosophy, and psychology. Nowadays, political science has to face new challenges brought by the ongoing process of digitization. There are several forms of digital activities which ethical nature seems to be disputable and which can have a remarkable influence on politics and economies of most countries. Fake news, as one of these phenomena, can be used to manipulate political moods within a nation, to spread fake information about political opponents, or to influence election results. Therefore, it seems reasonable to develop tools for political science that can help to get a better understanding of the new challenges. Supposedly, operational research might be an interesting, yet not thoroughly investigated, solution to this discipline. This research offers a simple example of how to use and incorporate operational research into problem structuring within political science, namely by analysing the concept of democracy. In the presented case study, DEMATEL method, which is used to capture the causal relationships between factors or criteria, is examined as a solution to assess interdependencies and linkages between key elements of democracy such as (among others): rule of law, balance of power, free and fair elections, human rights, common good, or public opinion. The results of this analysis are then put in context of fake news and relations between democracy, free media, and fake news are discussed. The results of this research illustrate, on the one hand, how operational research could be incorporated into the field of political science in order to make problem structuring more transparent, reasonable, and efficient and, on the other hand, point to free media as a crucial component of a democratic system.