Online Democracy: Applying Hannah Arendt’s Model of Democracy to the Internet

The internet is a major part of our lives today. This applies to politics as well, and accordingly, the question of whether it is possible to realize democracy on the internet has arisen. Using the arguments of Hannah Arendt, the article aims to determine what online democracy should look like. It is argued that the internet’s decentralized structure is advantageous because it facilitates the implementation of the Arendtian system of political councils. Clear rules, however, need to be established for such councils to function properly. The article asserts that the rules of political councils should consist of mutual trust, the process of authentication, and the existence of a common world revolving around shared topics. At the same time, however, given the nature of the internet, the article argues that some concessions need to be made in relation to Arendt’s argumentation. This mainly concerns Arendt’s emphasis on essentially political issues. As there is no unified political community on the internet, it is legitimate for political issues to be extended to themes that Arendt herself would have considered to be social in nature.