Politics, Governance, and Society in the Age of Artificial Intelligence and Digitalization: Challenges, Transformations, and Perspectives

The accelerating integration of AI and digital technologies into governance, politics, and civic life has transformed democracy. This section explores how digitalisation and AI reshapes political institutions, participation, and governance. It brings together scholars examining how digital technologies mediate the exercise of power, redefine the relationship citizens-state, and reconfigure the logics of communication and organization across political contexts. The section situates AI and digitalisation as instruments and arenas of political contestation. While they promise efficiency, inclusion, and innovation in governance and public life, they also generate new inequalities, ethical dilemmas, and legitimacy crises. By combining empirical studies, theoretical reflections, and critical perspectives, this section aims to foster an interdisciplinary dialogue about how digital transformation can both challenge and renew democratic practice. This section contributes to the broader ECPR debates on democratic resilience, institutional innovation, and digital governance, positioning AI and digitalisation as central to contemporary political change. The panels address questions of power, participation, representation, and legitimacy in digitally mediated politics, linking micro-level practices with macro-level transformations of governance and democracy. Using diverse approaches—from computational social science, critical theory, and comparative politics—the section exemplifies the interdisciplinary and international ethos of the Internet and Politics Standing Group. It consists of eight panels, each addressing distinct but interrelated dimensions of the political consequences of digitalisation and AI.